Natsu the Divine Dragon
by JballinR12
Summary: 1st story of a multi-part series. Watch as young Natsu learns just how big his role is, in this exciting story. Pairing Undecided. Independent Natsu.
1. Teaser

**Hello and welcome back to the start of what'll hopefully turn out to be the start of a very good series. If you aren't already aware, this is the 1****st**** part of a multi-part series with each individual part being 1 separate world and 1 whole story. That's all I have to say, so Let's get started.**

The scene opens up in the vastness of space. The only occupants being that of the Divine Dragon, Naga, and her baby sound asleep in her arms. 

As she brushes the baby's hair to the side, the scene then slides with her hand to show the baby, now known as Natsu, growing up with his brother and sister. The three of them can be seen sharing laughs and having fun whilst Naga watches over all of them.

Soon enough it shows Natsu getting ready for a sprint and the scene zooms in on his feet. As it shows the feet grow into a teenager's size, the scene zooms out to show a now teenage Natsu walking along a dirt path through a forest on his own.

A falling leaf covers the scene and when the leaf falls out of the way it shows Natsu standing up on a hill overlooking a massive robotic castle, said castle is looming over the large town nearby. The view causing Natsu to clench his fist even tighter.

The wind then picks up and Natsu and the scene itself turns around to see both of them in a completely new forest. This forest in particular, seemingly emitted thin dark clouds across the forest floor and easily blocked out the sunlight. Holding up his hand, Natsu pushed some magic into it to give off a light.

Said light proceeded to cover the entire scene leaving it all white. Once the light faded, it revealed a new scene with an older Natsu standing atop one of the statues of an arena. In the shadows of said statue was a figure whose appearance was completely covered by the shade.

Not long after the rain picked up and several droplets covered the scene blurring it. The new scene now shows Natsu laid out on a tree branch with his face towards the sky. The scene then pans towards his eyes which reflect an image of two different dragons.

**Alright, that's all I can say without going too in-depth, so I hope you look forward to the finished project and I will see you all later.**


	2. Prologue

**Hello and welcome to the start of something new. Before we begin, I would like to give a shout-out to my partner in this story, Earth Dragon Arnighte. The two of us will be working together so I do hope you readers will enjoy the fruits of our labor. Now for the story, this will not be Natsu from the canon Fairy Tail. Therefore, there will be big differences in how Natsu interacts with the world compared to how he would normally. Relationships will not be done right away, something that complex will be handled later on down the line. I would also like to mention that Natsu will not be joining any guild/faction. Rather Natsu will cooperate with whomever he sees fit to at the given time. Both Arnighte and myself do not own anything from Fairy Tail or any other references. That's all I have to say, so Let's get started.**

****Within the vast multiverse there was a planet. Said planet is one of many that are home to living beings. This planet is known as Hyperion. Hyperion is home to many creatures, but the absolute majority of these are dragons. Unlike a stereotypical dragon, Hyperion's dragons are extremely intelligent beings. The dragons also live in a civilized manner under the protection of individual lords, known as Royal Dragons. The royal dragons are naturally stronger than the standard dragon thus the title. If a royal dragon were to be beaten in a competition they specialized in, the title of royal dragon would be handed over to the victor. Above the royal dragons were the few but also strongest dragons in all of Hyperion, they were known as the Divine Dragons. Unlike a royal dragon, a divine dragon can't lose their position. After all, A divine dragon is meant to protect Hyperion from outside forces, thus they are the first line of defense against an invasion.

This is the story of one of the strongest divine dragons to have ever been born.

**Somewhere on Hyperion**

It was another bright and colorful day for Hyperion. The residents were all out and about doing their daily tasks. In particular, one large red dragon was just stepping outside his home in the mountains for a breath of fresh air. This dragon is one of the divine dragons known as Igneel. A former royal dragon who had the fortune to marry a divine dragon named Naga. As Igneel took in the fresh air, his heightened hearing easily picked up the sound of his wife just now getting up and out of slumber. Not even a few minutes had gone by till Naga herself showed up and rested her neck on his shoulder. Even through the scales, and his natural heat resistance, Igneel could easily feel her warm body heat.

Turning his neck to look at her, Igneel didn't even need to ask as Naga spoke up first. "The baby is coming soon, so as long as the kids don't start another fight, everything will go smoothly." Naga didn't even need to look at Igneel's face to see his draconic smile.

This would be their third child since getting married and the second time they get to experience the miracle of life. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for their children, a son and daughter by the names of Grima and Tiki, both 7 years old (**24 in human years)**. While both son and daughter were looking forward to their youngest sibling the fact that it was yet another boy didn't sit well with the sole daughter of Naga as she believed that he would turn out to be another Grima, a very big pain.

On the other hand, Grima was looking forward to another sibling to have round and pull pranks on. While Grima was not a direct child of Igneel and Naga, having been adopted by the pair after a failed attempt to raid their home, He was still welcomed by all members of the family regardless, even if his first prank since joining the family immediately got him on Tiki's bad side.

A few hours had past, and by now both children had woken up and already finished eating breakfast Igneel had caught earlier. It was now late in the morning nearing midday and Naga had retired back to her bed as the baby was in the progress of coming out. While this was going on Igneel had already kicked the kids out of the cave while the baby was coming out and after several minutes of intense labor, the baby had finally arrived.

Currently asleep in Naga's lap, both parents were quietly watching over their newborn. They need not think of a name for they already had one for him. Natsu. Named after the season they first meet. Over the next hour the family got to know their newest member to the family.

In terms of appearance, Natsu took after Igneel in terms of overall appearance but his scales were all pinkish in color. What could be considered an ironic twist, Natsu actually liked to hang out with Tiki more than Grima much to his dismay and her joy. But that also didn't stop him from partaking in the occasional prank. To no one's surprise, as Natsu was growing up he got his love for a good fight from Igneel and got his caring nature from Naga. Another interesting thing he inherited was his ability to use fire magic. Having gotten the same magic as Igneel, Igneel also added magic training to his current regime.

**Several years later**

Natsu, now 6 years old, was currently in a yet another training session with Igneel and Grima. Today's session had Natsu trying to shatter a large boulder without the use of his magic. One could also say that it was a form of punishment for the prank he pulled on Igneel earlier that same morning. Now while the boys were currently training, both Naga and Tiki were inside the cave in an intense discussion over the Tiki's ever-growing magic power and her inability to keep it in check.

"Tiki dear, I'm starting to get worried about your magic power." Naga said. "At the current rate, your magic power might even become unstable and start hurting everyone." She continued. In turn, Tiki gave a sad sigh as she rested her head in the lap of her mother. "I understand mom, but my control over the magic has been getting worse day by day." She spoke. "I also know of how unstable my magic has become, as I had almost hurt Natsu a few times." Once she finished speaking, it was time for Naga to start her plan. She had discussed it last night with Igneel and he had given her his approval so now was the time to initiate. "Tiki, I have an idea." She started. Immediately gaining her daughter's full attention. Tiki wholeheartedly trusted her mother so any advice from her had to be good. "we'll have to find a suitable world for you to go into a deep slumber. Whilst sleeping your magic power will still increase, but at a much slower rate than if you were active. Therefore, you will use the opportunity to start increasing your control of your vast power, as the best method to do so is when you are sleeping or doing mental training."

The plan didn't come without risk, regardless of how safe this new world may seem. Time controls everything, therefore even if they found the ideal location. Tiki may be at risk to unforeseen threats. Brushing the risks aside, Tiki made up her mind almost instantly. She would follow her mother's plan and increase her control over her magic. It was later in the evening when the other children had finally learned of the plan. Both Natsu and Grima were rightfully against it. But Tiki made her choice and the others could do nothing to change her mind.

An hour had passed and now was the time to say good-bye. Grima was still pissed about the plan and had refused to say good-bye. Natsu gave her a tight embrace and had promised to grow even stronger so he could stand by her side. Igneel also held her in a tight embrace, and reassured her that Naga will watch over her. The whole family had a few tears shed, even Grima, and both Tiki and Naga finally left through a portal Naga had made.

Afterwards, the rest of the family retired to sleep for the night as the day's events were exhausting. It was now near midnight, when Igneel woke up to the sound of a portal being opened. Thinking that Naga had temporarily come back to prepare for her long watch, he had left the cave to see Grima already pass through the portal which then immediately closed. Igneel was furious over this, but didn't dare to follow him as he doesn't know where Grima's destination is. Choosing not to mention it to Natsu, he retired back into the cave to keep a watch for his other child and make absolute sure that Natsu wasn't as stupid as Grima.

For the rest of the night, nothing else had happened. Naga had yet to come back so Igneel believed she had already started watching over Tiki. It was now dawn of the next day, and having finally believed Natsu wouldn't try anything Igneel had slept the rest of the night away. Now with the sun up high, it was just him and Natsu left at home. While Igneel believed that this day couldn't get any worse, fate had other plans, for not too long after Natsu learned that Grima was gone, was the cave attacked by regular class dragons.

Following strict instructions, Natsu was told not to leave the cave as he was not yet ready to fight against other dragons. So, outside the cave Igneel stood against all of the dragons whose numbers came to 5 regular class dragons. Having initially believed this to be some sort of misunderstanding as it was quite common on Hyperion for regular class dragons to actively seek out and attack royals, Igneel was no longer a royal class, therefore the regulars had no reason to attack him. At least that was what he had thought until one of the regulars spoke up. "Igneel the time has come for you and your family to die. You along with the other divine dragons will lord over the others no longer. Death to the Divine!" upon speaking the last words they were repeated by the other regulars as well. That was when Igneel realized that this was a preplanned rebellion staged with removing everyone from a position of power by those who suffered immensely by those who had abused power. He could also tell that this group were firm believers in their cause and words wouldn't sway them.

Thus, as soon as the group had finished repeating their creed, Igneel immediately rushed one of the regulars and pierced their chest with his claw. Instantly killing the poor soul. Within a split second after, Igneel's head shot over to the closest dragon who had only just noticed their dead comrade. Not long after was the same dragon hit by a sizeable ball of fire, with heat so great that even Natsu with his inborn fire resistance, could feel the heat from those flames. As soon as Igneel canceled the fire, he was flanked by two dragons and both had charged up magic in their mouth to then shoot it at Igneel's back. Before it even came close, Igneel had flown straight up into the air before using the momentum to do a back flip and land on his feet right behind the now stunned dragons. Once again, Igneel shot forward with his claw and tried to pierce both dragons. One of the dragons was lucky and managed to evade, kicking up some dust in the process, the unlucky one had also attempted to dodge but Igneel's claw had torn right through their wing and arm crippling the dragon's ability to fly. Now with a serious amount of blood loss, the now crippled dragon knew it could no longer even try to stand against Igneel and attempted to limp off the field until he felt the heat slam into his back. Said heat was from a blazing trail of fire that had extended from the palm of Igneel's claw which was covered in dry dragon blood. The trail of fire had instantly roasted the crippled the dragon before they even had time to hit the ground.

Turning around to face the last two dragons, a fire blazed on in his eyes as he was met with the view of both dragons using Natsu as a hostage to try and get Igneel to stand down. "Enough fighting Igneel, even you have a weakness and we have it in our hands. Now stop fighting a-" Started the leader, but before he could even finish speaking, both his and the last dragon's heads were brutally severed from their necks with Igneel now behind both dragons with both of his arms extended and crossed over each other. His claws once more coated in blood.

With the dragons dead, Igneel burned off the rest of the blood off his hands and went to check on Natsu's condition. Arriving at Natsu's fallen form, he immediately looked over Natsu's body for any damage. As luck would have it, the only thing Natsu had was a small scar on his neck. Other than that, Natsu was merely unconscious. Releasing a sigh, he didn't know he was holding, Igneel took a brief look at the surrounding environment, or what was left of it. The heat from his fire had burned the trees and vaporized the leaves. The cave he and his family had once called home had now collapsed in on itself. All the memories buried within. Now taking the time to observe further beyond the nearby area, Igneel could see smoke clouds in several locations rising up into the air. Like he thought, the attack was all preplanned and just as he thought, he was not the only target.

With their home no longer a safe place for Natsu, Igneel made the hard choice and opened a portal. It was time to temporarily look for a new world to stay, until the uprising was over. Picking up Natsu and throwing him onto his back, Igneel walked through the portal. With no time to prep, he wasn't sure where they would end up. But he would make sure that he would see to it that Natsu become as strong as possible. He would need help to take back their world.

**Somewhere in the Earthland**

A few hours had passed and both Igneel and Natsu had finally arrived at their unplanned destination. Immediately scanning the environment. Igneel had detected a variety of animals and other living creatures, but no dragons. Deeming it safe, he stretched his wings and got prepped to fly. Taking off, Igneel was now heading for the mountains he had seen earlier, as he was flying, he noticed a more frequent amount of what appeared to be human cities. While humans did exist on Hyperion, they weren't as abundant as here in this new world. A half hour soon passed, and Igneel finally arrive at the base of a suitable mountain. Activating his magic, Igneel slowly and carefully melted the side of the mountain enough to form a sizable cave for the two of them to stay.

Carefully setting Natsu down on the still warm rocky floor, Igneel took out an old scale from Naga, and carefully carved it down to fit Natsu's size. Once he finished, he placed the now smaller scale on Natsu's chest, and cast a spell. Once the spell had finished Natsu's entire body was now covered in a bright light. Not long after the light soon began to shrink along with Natsu. Now with the light completely gone to show a now human looking Natsu, entirely naked and pretty well built for someone who looks like a young child. With Natsu still unconscious, Igneel had also made sure to seal Natsu's memories of being a dragon away with the ability to turn back into a dragon. To the rest of the world, Natsu the divine dragon went missing during the uprising, but to Igneel, Natsu Dragneel was born.

**Alright and that's a pretty sizable 1****st**** chapter for ya. Now a quick Q&A for those future questions. The main reason why Igneel turned Natsu into a human was so if any of the rebelling dragons had managed to miraculously follow Igneel to the new world. They wouldn't be able to find and threaten Natsu, therefore concealing Igneel's weakness for his family. I didn't have much of the family talking nor did I spend too much time on Natsu's early childhood as I will be making periodical flashbacks to different times of Natsu's childhood throughout the multi-part series. As to how Igneel knows transformation magic, well he doesn't actually. Rather Naga and Tiki both do. In an emergency, Igneel was given an old scale from Naga to use for transformations. I chose to seal away Natsu's memories of his early childhood as a dragon as, like I mentioned prior, if any of the rebel dragons did manage to slip into the new world, and they by chance happened to run into Natsu, they would easily be able to get info out of Natsu as he isn't known for keeping secrets even in this universe. That's all I have for now so I will see you when I see you.**


	3. Chapter 1

**Hello and welcome back to another chapter. Before we begin, I would like to thank everyone who supported my story as I wasn't sure how well it would turn out. I would also like to mention that while both Arnighte and myself are cooperating on this story, the idea was mine and some of the characters that will be used are from Arnighte. Once more Arnighte and myself don't own anything belonging to Fairy Tail or any associated franchise. That's all for now, so Let's get started.**

**Worth Woodsea**

Within the vast sea of forest, there was a remote village. Mostly tribal in architecture, it was populated by a sizable number of villagers. However, two of the residents were rather unique. At least when compared to everyone else in the village. One was a talking bipedal white cat who also possessed the ability to fly. The other was a very young girl by the name of Wendy Marvel.

Wendy first came to the village with a young boy with blue hair. The original idea was to stay a few days and then continue travelling, that was until the boy had abandoned her with the villagers. Soon after she was raised by the chief of the village, and has been living comfortably with them ever since. A few months later, a large white egg had been found in the nearby perimeter which Wendy found and chose to raise. Not too long after that the egg hatched and out came Carla the exceed. They quickly became friends though Carla would often behave more like an overly concerned mother.

It had been a few months after that was when Wendy would soon discover something that would change her life forever.

**Mountain range north of Worth Woodsea**

Way up north outside the reach of the thick forest, was a dragon and a human. They were Igneel and Natsu Dragneel. Several months ago, Natsu had first found Igneel when he was passed out from starvation. **(based on what Igneel told him) **ever since, Natsu grew fond of Igneel and saw him as his adopted father. To which Igneel did not refute. After their first meeting, Natsu had been training under the teaching of Igneel in a type of magic known as Fire Dragon slayer magic. **(something Igneel made up and doesn't realize it actually exists)** At the current moment, Natsu was walking through the forest silently hunting his prey. He had been following the tracks since early morning and had been tasked by Igneel to hunt for his food or he wouldn't get to eat. It wasn't too long after the current time in which Natsu soon came upon his prey, a large brown boar. To the average human adult this boar was as tall as the former. Not to mention it had a thick hide to help defend against simple arrows.

Currently the boar was grazing on some grass, unaware of Natsu observing it, waiting for an opportunity. That opportunity came when the boar decided to lay down. Almost instantly Natsu sprinted right at the boar with his hand aflame. Unfortunately, Natsu didn't take in the environment and literally hit a snag, the sound of which alerted the boar. Immediately coming to a stop, Natsu watched as the boar which easily towered over him came face to face with him before it decided to charge right for him. The size of the boar and the speed of which it was charging, meant that Natsu didn't have enough time to get out of its way and he was nailed right in the gut and subsequently sent flying.

**Wendy's POV**

Around the same time, Wendy was currently gathering some water from the nearby river to bring back to the village. Once she had finished filling the 2nd bucket, a loud splash was heard and drew her attention to see a boy in the river unconscious. Concern for the boy's wellbeing quickly overcame her fear as she made her way over to him and struggled to get him ashore.

A few minutes of struggling passed and both Wendy and this unknown boy were now safe on the riverbank though both soaking wet. Quickly checking the boy's condition, she was relieved when she found him to be relatively ok. Once that was done, she activated her magic and started to use the air currents to help dry off both of their clothes. Several minutes later and now with both sets of clothes dry, Wendy was still left with the unconscious boy. Though the village wasn't too far away from the river, Wendy isn't very strong so she couldn't lift the boy and carry him back to the village with her.

She soon got an idea to make a rudimentary mobile platform from the nearby plants and after a few minutes finally finished. The platform itself wasn't very complex, nor did it need to. It was made up of a single layer of sticks that been skillfully sewn together with some flexible ivy. It also had a small part that rested upwards enough so that when Wendy started to pull it, the boy wouldn't fall out the back. After hauling the boy into her makeshift platform, she picked up the reins of ivy and started pulling the whole thing back to the village.

Not too long after, she had finally made it back and was met with the worried face of Carla who had been concerned when Wendy had left for the river and took far longer to get back. "Where have you been child? I know for a fact the river isn't even four minutes away so how come it took you almost 45minutes just to get some water." She exclaimed. While she was still worn out from pulling the platform, Wendy still managed to gather enough breath to answer. "It wouldn't have taken me that long if this boy hadn't landed in the river. I think he's still out cold though." Wendy said as she directed Carla's attention to the still unconscious boy. Choosing not to reprimand Wendy on taking care of strangers until after the boy woke up, Carla merely sighed and told Wendy to be more careful.

Now several hours later and back inside the village, both Wendy and Carla were taking turns to watch over their guest. Said guest was still out cold even after a few attempts to get him to wake up. Wendy had just finished making Carla and herself some dinner when she heard some groans coming from the guest room. Quickly picking up the pace, she hurriedly placed all the food down on the table before going over to check on the boy.

**Natsu's POV**

Having just woken up, Natsu quickly looked around to find himself inside an unfamiliar structure. Taking a look around, he saw nothing that looked even remotely like the forest he had been previously walking in. It was around this time his enhanced hearing picked up the sound of small footsteps heading his way. Turning to face the direction of the noise, much to his shock, there stood someone who looked like he did. Human. His curiosity was quickly subdued when his starving stomach growled up which got a few giggles from the young girl.

A minute of silence went by as the two quietly observed the other. Natsu decided to take the initiative and speak up first. "Hey there, could you tell me where I am and how I got here." The girl seemed to hesitate slightly before choosing to answer. "It's pretty rude to not introduce yourself first." With what seemed like a rehearsed answer. Raising his hand to the back of his head and chuckling in embarrassment, Natsu quickly corrected himself. "Sorry about that. My name is Natsu Dragneel. What's yours?" he said as he just now remembered Igneel's lessons on manners. This got both kids to giggle and the girl answered. "It's nice to meet you Natsu, my name is Wendy and to answer your question, I found you in a river unconscious several hours ago. You seemed pretty beat up."

After introductions were done, Wendy remembered that she had dinner on the table and excused herself to go call someone by the name of Carla. Once she left, Natsu got up and out of bed and took a look outside. Through the hole in the wall Natsu could see a lot more of those strange buildings like the one he was in and chose to ask Wendy about it later. Turning his attention away from the outside, his nose picked up the smell of food and followed it to find Wendy and a white cat sitting at a table eating the food he smelled.

A few seconds after Natsu entered the room, and the white cat had finally noticed him standing there. It was at this time she decided to introduce herself. "Well hello there Natsu, my name's Carla and Wendy's friend. Wendy told me you were up so we made another helping of food for you as she had guessed you might be starving." She spoke in a much more refined tone as opposed to Wendy. Speaking of Wendy, she seemed to blush after being called out. But quickly brushed it off and waved Natsu to come and sit down and eat with them. Natsu didn't need to be told twice and instantly sat down with them and started dishing up some food for himself.

Now with dinner over, and both girls a little stunned at Natsu's appetite, the time for questions came. Carla spoke up first. "Wendy here tells me that she found you in a river out cold, would you care to elaborate on that." Natsu gave her a confused look in return until the events prior registered in his head. Giving a quick nod Natsu answered. "I was out hunting for my lunch and found this huge boar." Using his arms to show the size of the boar he found. "I went to attack it and alerted it to my presence, it then proceeded to charge me and the next thing I remember was waking up here." Her question properly answered Carla accepted his tale. This time it was Wendy's turn to ask a question. "But why were you out hunting, Carla and the elder tell me that its usually the job of an adult to go out and hunt animals." She asked still curious over that part. Just then Natsu remembered his task for training today and groaned when he realized he basically skipped training. The groan made Wendy tense up until Natsu answered her. "I was supposed to go hunting as part of my training, but I forgot that my father said I wasn't allowed to eat until after I accomplished the hunt." The answer solved one part but it wasn't until Natsu mentioned his father that got the two girls curious again.

"Natsu, what kind of person is your father that he wouldn't let you eat?" Wendy asked. At this Natsu gave off a quick laugh before explaining. "My dad isn't a human, he's a dragon." The mention of Natsu's father being a dragon got Wendy's full attention. Something Carla immediately noticed and chose to give the two some space. The next thing Wendy asked was simple, but straightforward. "Natsu, are you a dragon slayer like myself?" easily hearing what Wendy asked he puffed up his small chest and replied with pride in his voice. "Hell yeah, I'm the son of Igneel and a fire dragon slayer." At this Wendy clapped her hands together and continued. "Oh wow, I'd never have thought that there were more dragon slayers like myself. I'm the sky dragon slayer raised by my mother Grandeeney."

The mention of Wendy's dragon mother got Natsu curious he was going to ask where her dragon was, but when he was about to ask her, Wendy got a little teary eyed. Instead he chose not to ask and volunteered to stay with Wendy for the next few days, much to her joy. Over the course of aforementioned days, Natsu got to meet the other residents of the village. Once introductions were over, Natsu got to work with the other villagers, mainly helping Wendy with stuff she couldn't do on her own. On their free time, the two could be seen playing games together as Carla watched over them both, mainly Wendy, and made sure they didn't get into too much trouble.

At long last was the time for Natsu to head back to his home in the northern mountain with Igneel. Many tears were had by Wendy, but Natsu reassured her that he would come visit her as often as he could. Of course, that wasn't enough for Wendy as she made him swear by his own word. Soon enough however, Natsu did venture back into the forest as Wendy, Carla, and the other villagers waved goodbye.

**Igneel's POV**

Over the course of the same few days, Natsu spent in the village. Igneel had been watching him from afar. He had been worried when Natsu didn't come back at all, but was relieved when he saw how well Natsu got along with the local villagers. On the day of Natsu's leave Igneel had already been preparing to head out himself. Unknown to Natsu, Igneel knew who Grandeeney was and had been getting ready to go look for her.

While Natsu was making his way through the forest back to his home, Igneel had already taken off to go looking for Grandeeney. So, upon arriving home a few hours later, Natsu was absolutely heartbroken when he couldn't find Igneel. With no note or anything of the sort to tell him where Igneel went, Natsu had chosen to stay in the cave for weeks. Throughout the weeks it became routine for Natsu to continue his training, go hunting, and pay visits to Wendy. Though he didn't mention Igneel's disappearance to Wendy. She could tell that something had indeed happened.

Now it was officially 2 months since Igneel had taken off and Natsu was determined to go find him. So, after saying his farewells to both Wendy and Carla with a vow to come visit again, Natsu headed out into the world on a quest to find what happened to his missing father.

**Alright and that's all there is for this chapter. A few things to say before I wrap up here. 1****st**** Q&A, Grandeeney and Igneel are from the same world of Hyperion, but both Natsu and Wendy don't know that. Natsu and Wendy will meet again, that I can assure you. As of right now, Natsu's appearance is in between the young Natsu and the Natsu of the start of canon. I did not mention Natsu's scarf as that hasn't appeared yet. The scarf itself will come later on in the series. 2****nd****, it should be mentioned that with the end of this chapter, the 1****st**** official arc will start with the next chapter. Hope you all look forward to it. 3****rd****, for those whom may not already know I have started both a discord and have been looking into live streaming on twitch. To keep it short, twitch streams will consist of me doing live Q&As on my stories as I play random games. The discord will be for more direct chat, and for those who might miss my streams. More details are on my profile as well as instructions on how to join the discord.**


	4. Chapter 2

**Hello and welcome back to another chapter. I don't have much news to share this time around. Once more, Arnighte and myself don't own anything related to Fairy Tail or associated franchises. That's all for now so, Let's get Started.**

**Rodare Heights**

In the vast mountain range that made up the Rodare Heights, there lay the isolated town of Everspire. In said town was one weary Natsu. Natsu had arrived at Everspire around three months after saying his final goodbyes to Wendy and Carla. How he ended up there is a rather amusing tale.

**1 week ago**

Traveling back in time we rejoin Natsu as he had just arrived at the entrance to the Rodare Heights. Seeing new sights always gave Natsu some good motivation so he was pretty eager to start exploring. After several minutes of enthusiastic exploration, Natsu made his way through the range. It wasn't long after this when his ears caught the sound of an arrow whizzing right for him. Easily side-stepping out of the way, Natsu turned to face his attacker only to see around a dozen or so mountain bandits come jumping out of their hiding spot to face him. Looking over all of them, each one of the bandits held a weapon of some kind. Including the archer who still had their bow cocked with another arrow.

This time, one of the bandits, who Natsu assumed to be the leader of this particular group took a step towards Natsu and spoke up. "Alright kid, drop everything you have on you and lay down on the ground." The gruff voice of this bandit meant that they weren't amateurs, and they seemingly knew what to do. So Natsu complied and dropped his belongings, which was just an empty bag.

But as Natsu went to lie down, as soon as his hand touched the ground he shot forth in a brilliant burst of speed and manipulated the archer's arms to take aim and fire the still notched arrow right at the leader. Said leader was able to easily deflect the arrow with the axe in his hand, but it turned out to be a distraction for the next thing headed his way was the very same archer who now sported a burning hole in their chest. Natsu now where the archer previously had been stood by and watched the rest of the bandits charge him.

The closest bandit was wielding a spear and was about to thrust it into Natsu's chest when a black arrow found its home in between his eyes. At this everyone had stopped to face the newcomer who had fired said arrow this newcomer was a young teen girl with short dark blue hair and violet eyes. Dawning a bluish-green elbow length jacket with a similar colored belt and long black pants, the girl had just finished notching another arrow into her recurve bow by the time everyone had looked at her. Some of the more intelligent bandits soon switched their targets to the newcomer, who had just fired another arrow into yet another bandit's face.

This girl soon caught Natsu's gaze and shouted out to him. "Hey you there, don't stand there gawking around people who are trying to kill you." Her harsh tone made Natsu internally wince as he knew very well that if Igneel had been the one to correct him, he would've been smashed into a crater. Returning his attention on the nearest bandit who was right next to him with a dagger in their hand, he quickly grabbed the wrist and smashed it with his open hand, the powerful blow causing the bandit to cry out in pain and they lost their grip on the dagger. At the same time a bandit wielding a sword tried a horizontal slash from Natsu's backside only to have Natsu flip himself over the same bandit's whose wrist he shattered and for the same bandit to get slashed in half.

Tossing away the corpse, Natsu sent his magic to his hand quickly charged up a fireball and fired it right at the swordsman. Said swordsman tried to deflect the fireball only for the heat of the fire to instantly melt his sword's blade and for the fireball itself to slam right into him, Scorching the poor soul instantly. Around the same time, Natsu felt himself get picked up from where he was standing by the very same lead bandit who had first spoke to him. Though it seemed his attention wasn't on Natsu this time, but rather the girl who as Natsu now noticed was currently holding a spear in her hands. Where she got the spear was a mystery, but what was more important was the next thing the leader said. "Young one, I'm afraid that I'm gonna have to ask you to lay down your arms and accept your punishment. Else I'll have to crush this one's windpipe." He continued as he tightened his grip on Natsu's neck.

But much to both parties' confusion, instead of complying with the leader's demands, the girl twirled the spear in her hands until the pointed end was now facing right for Natsu and a split second later, it was thrown right at Natsu. It didn't take long for the spear to find its target, the leader's arm. Right through Natsu's shoulder. Flinching from the shock of the spear that easily went through his shoulder, Natsu didn't even register the pain until after he felt leader's grip on him loosen.

Removing leader's grip from around his neck quite easily Natsu noticed that the entire arm was still around his neck, meaning that the spear throw had severed it from the body itself. Course it wasn't long after when the now armless leader collapsed on his knees and was now at the mercy of the girl who had at this time managed to dislodge her spear from his body. Natsu just silently watched, clutching his shoulder as the girl took her spear and beheaded the leader.

The still unnamed girl now turned to face Natsu, as she walked up to him, Natsu could slowly feel the pain in his shoulder but fought against the urge to sleep it off long enough for the girl to speak. "Well fought there. I'm impressed you managed to stay in one piece after getting hit by my spear." The way she spoke slightly confused Natsu as she didn't seem any older than Wendy yet this girl sounded far more mature. Natsu wanted to speak, but the pain in his shoulder stopped him from answering.

Instead the girl took his silence to introduce herself. "Shamir is my name. let's hope you are still alive long enough to remember it." She spoke. Natsu gave her a quizzical look and she just sighed before punching Natsu in the gut, dropping him over her shoulder. Shamir gave a tired sigh as she started carrying Natsu back to her home.

**Present day**

Back in the present, Shamir had just walked back into her house and greeted Natsu who now had a scar in his shoulder. In her hands was a basket filled with fruit and vegetables she bought from the other locals. It was around this time that Natsu had learned that Shamir managed to keep him fed and patched his wound up over his week of extended sleep. He had also noticed that he was undressed and asked Shamir about it who blushed but didn't answer him.

After helping Shamir prepare lunch, which consisted mainly of the produce she had brought back earlier, the two sat in silence at the table. Curiosity got the better of him as Natsu spoke up first. "So, may I ask why you had chosen to get involved in that fight." Shamir gave him a long and hard look before finally spoke up to answer. "You had looked like you were in trouble," at this Natsu scoffed but allowed her to continue. "I was also looking for that particular group for a crime they had committed earlier this month." At this, Natsu's full attention was on her. "About several weeks back, that same group of thugs caused a scene in town here and I had been tasked to remove them from town. Of course, I had first tried to reason with them though they didn't choose to comply. After flexing my muscle, the leader Garret, saw that I was being pretty serious and managed to convince the rest of them to leave the town with him."

She paused her recalling when a rock had been thrown through the window shattering the glass and landing in her living room. Both Natsu and Shamir quickly got up to see who had thrown it but only Natsu caught a piece of the assailant's cloak fluttering behind them as they disappeared behind another building. It was only for a split second, but Natsu instantly recognized it as part of the mountain bandit's group.

Not long after that, the whole town lit up in a blaze. Both Natsu and Shamir headed out to help the people there, as a tall figure stood atop Shamir's roof. Quietly watching the duo work to quell the fire and help the locals.

**Elsewhere in Everspire**

At the same time in a different location, there was a lone red-haired knight. Battling it out against the oncoming waves of bandits. This lone knight was Erza Scarlet from the Fairy Tail guild. She had been heading back to the guild and was currently staying at a local inn when the fire broke out. As soon as she got outside, she found herself surrounded by bandits. Some of which were still charging fire magic, others wielding simple weapons. Gaining a serious look, she called to her requip magic and summoned her trademark sword. Immediately taking out the bandits charging their magic, the others charged her from all sides.

Sidestepping the first downward slash and deflecting a horizontal with her blade, she took the hilt and jabbed it into the closest bandit, taking them down immediately like a sack of potatoes. Deflecting another slash aimed at her head this time, she swung back and shattered right through her attacker's weapons while also using her blade's length to nail him in the body at the same time.

Now that some of the bandits seemed to recognize her as a formidable opponent, several of them backed off and gave her some space. That would be their mistake as the opening the bandits gave her allowed her to quickly close the distance between them and unleash a powerful horizontal slash.

**With Shamir**

Around the same time, Shamir had just finished guiding some of the locals out of town, when her instincts spiked. Rolling out of the way of a powerful downward slash that easily left a small crack in the earth, she found herself face to face with Paul. One of the higher ups who belonged to the same group Garret did. Paul easily towered over her and held a massive two-handed sword that only went up to his chest in terms of height. Watching patiently as Shamir brought out her spear, Paul couldn't help but chuckle at seeing the young child he remembered now standing against him. "It's been 10years since we've last met and you've grown nice." Shamir grimaced at his words but didn't answer. "Aww, not gonna talk? A shame, you always had such a cute voice." This time Shamir gave him a nasty glare as she charged right for him aiming to strike him right in the heart.

Easily deflecting such a pathetic attempt, Paul hefted the two-hander and quickly swung a downward diagonal slash at her, who was still open from charging in recklessly. Shutting her eyes to brace for the impact, she was shocked when instead of getting hit, she felt herself in someone's arms. Opening her eyes, she was shocked and a little embarrassed that Natsu was carrying her and had also jumped out of the way of Paul's swing.

Quickly looking Natsu over, **(at least what she could see still in his arms)** she saw a few cuts and bruises scattering his upper body, no doubt from the other bandits. Having finished registering that she was still in Natsu's arms, she gave him a slight nudge to be put down. Natsu complied right away and in no time at all, Shamir was back on her feet and blushing bright red.

Natsu wanted to ask her what was wrong, but his heightened senses detected an incoming slash heading straight for him. Quickly turning to face the attack, he reacted on instinct and easily caught the blade mid swing, though it did not stop him from being pushed back a few feet. Much to his amusement, the owner of the blade was Paul, and boy was the man livid. Paul once again hefted his sword out of Natsu's tight grip and rested it on his shoulder. At the same time, he was giving Natsu a very furious glare. "Shamir doesn't belong to you stranger, so don't play the hero and get lost." He spoke angrily. At this, Natsu just prepped himself for a fight and answered. "Sorry pal, but I won't tolerate anyone who hurts my friends." Once he finished speaking, he was slightly surprised to see Paul laughing. Giving him a moment to calm down Paul spoke up. "Friends? The girl who was raised by bandits, destined to lead our clan to glory, is friends with a nobody like you?" the question was rhetorical and Natsu knew that, but he still answered. "Yeah that's right, she saved my life. So, this is my way of returning the favor."

Once he was done speaking. Natsu bolted right for Paul, already forming a strategy on the fly. Paul meanwhile, didn't answer and tightened his grip on his sword and waited until Natsu got close enough before sending another slash right for him. This time, instead of catching the blade, Natsu tilted his body out of the blade's path and charged up magic in his hand. Within a second, fire burst forth from his hand, and Natsu quickly sent a flaming punch right into Paul's gut, sending both him and his sword flying back into the now evacuated town.

**With Erza**

Having just finished off the last bandit in her own section. She was a little taken aback when out of nowhere, a very large man was sent right through a nearby building. As Erza was just about to approach the man, another man no taller than herself and sporting pink spiky hair showed up through the large man's path of destruction. Just as she was about to quell the fight. The large man, now sporting a burn mark on his chest finally got up and furiously charged at the pink hair teen. Deciding to not intervene in favor of seeing what this newcomer was capable of. She watched in amazement as the teen's arms were ablaze and were able to effortlessly fight off a multitude of slashes dealt by the large man.

**With Natsu**

As he continued to dodge out of every swing that came his way, he caught the gaze of a curious red-haired girl in the armor of a knight. He wondered why a knight was all the way out here in such a remote location when he felt a fist connect with his head, sending him straight through another few buildings before coming to a stop in a now broken kitchen table. Getting up easily and brushing off some of the debris, Natsu pulled his focus back to fighting Paul and bolted right for him.

In a split second, Natsu was right in front of Paul and unleashed a devastating flurry of flaming punches. Each one connecting and releasing a small explosion, all of which continued to pummel Paul until the final punch which gave off a larger explosion and sent Paul right through a few more buildings, and impacted with one of the mountains. The force of the impact left a bloody crater and anyone could easily tell that Paul perished on impact.

Now with the town in shambles, but the fighting over, Natsu found yet another blade that rested itself on his shoulder. Turning to face its owner he saw the familiar red-haired knight who had taken the time to close the distance between them. Seeing that she now had his undivided attention, she spoke up. "While I should thank you for helping to take care of that bandit, I do not approve of killing him." At this, Natsu merely shrugged it off, to which aggravated the red hair. "Since you will not comply with my demands, then I, Erza Scarlet, shall carrying out your punishment." As she finished speaking, she had moved to strike Natsu in the back of his head with her gauntlet, only for Natsu to turn around to face her suddenly, throwing her off and causing her to stumble forward.

The next thing she knew, she was pressing against Natsu's chest. Blushing a deep crimson, she immediately pulled back and apologized while refusing to meet his face. Laughing it off Natsu wholeheartedly accepted it and started to head back to Shamir's place. Only for Erza to keep following him. While he didn't mind the company, he was still curious as to what Erza's current motive was now that the bandit attack was over.

At the same time, Erza's mind was running a mile a minute as this had been one of the few times, she actually felt embarrassed to be around someone. Originally, the plan was to tie up this strange teen and bring him back by force to the Council. **(Everspire doesn't have a local Council office)** but after that embarrassing incident, she couldn't think properly. Choosing to follow him, and study his behavior for now seemed to be the best plan.

A few minutes of silence passed for the two as they had just reached Shamir's place. Natsu had only walked up to the door and could already sense Shamir about to open it. Quickly stepping out of the way of the door, Shamir proceeded to head back outside unimpeded and relooked over what remained of Everspire. A few buildings were still intact, but the vast majority of the town had either been smashed apart by Natsu and Paul's fight, or had been burned to the ground by the bandits. Releasing a quiet sigh, she turned to face Natsu and Erza. The former of the two matching her worn down expression, and the latter having calmed down after some event.

It was at this time she spoke up. "Well Natsu, I don't think I can live here anymore." While she was technically speaking to Natsu, that didn't mean Erza did not hear his name. Which she made a mental note of. "If that's the case. What do you want to do now?" he answered. Shamir gave it some thought. A minute went by of no answer and Natsu was about to dismiss it when she answered. "Since you've saved my life, we are now even. Though I insist that you help me finally end the troublemakers who were responsible for this mess."

In response Natsu simply gave her a smirk and she could tell that he would help. Now she focused on Erza, this woman was one she did not know. "Forgive me for my rudeness, but I do find it better if no one learns of my history with bandits. I also don't know who you are, but based on that mark, you are a part of a guild. I would like for you to not get involved any further than you already have." Listening carefully, Erza could understand not wanting an outsider to get involved in personal matters. She herself could relate to a rough upbringing. So, in compliance to Shamir's request, Erza agreed to not get any further involved and proceeded to depart once more for her guild.

**All right and that about wraps up this chapter. I don't have much else to say for the time being. Hope you all look forward to the next chapter and I will see you when I see you.**


	5. Chapter 3

**Hello and welcome back to another chapter. Nothing new to say this time except that I hope you continue to enjoy the story. Once more, Arnighte and myself don't own anything from Fairy Tail or associated franchises. That's all I have to say, so Let's get started.**

**Rodare Heights**

It had been a whole day since Natsu and Shamir had left the ruins of Everspire in tracking down the bandit group that had raided the town. The two passed the time by making some small talk. Shamir learned that Natsu was raised by a dragon, though she didn't actually believe him. Natsu learned that Shamir was raised to use a bow and spear and not magic. He also learned that the group of mountain bandits that attacked Everspire, which included Garret and Paul, went by the name of Serpent. Serpent was currently led by Shamir's father, Derek.

They enjoyed the calm environment as they steadily travelled the path through the mountains. Soon though it was time to stop for lunch. Taking a look around, the best place to setup a temporary camp was a riverbank that ran along one of the nearby mountains. After some time had passed to setup camp, Natsu got the campfire going while Shamir went to bathe in the river.

Natsu had asked to join her in bathing in the river but a very bright red Shamir denied his request, much to his confusion. Not long after, had Shamir finally finished her bath and was currently resting on the riverbank, her clothes neatly folded nearby. Natsu had told her that he was heading out to go hunting and that he'll be back later. This gave Shamir some time to reflect on her past.

**Flashback**

It was another day for young Shamir as a member of the Serpent. Just the previous day, Serpent had ambushed a caravan laden with goods. Now, they were still enjoying the spoils from said caravan. Garret, Paul, Derek, and some of the other heads were all gathered round their own private table. The leaders of the group all in their own world as they planned out the next raid. Shamir on the other hand had chosen to remain isolated. She didn't care about the goods they acquired, nor did she want to partake in the laidback attitude everyone else had already adopted. She did not like taking the lives of those who did not fight back. Compared to everyone else, Shamir was the "odd one out" amongst the other members of Serpent.

She had resigned herself to her fate of a life as a bandit. But that didn't mean she didn't dream of a different life. Unlike a typical father-daughter family, Shamir was not even raised by Derek. Rather she learned by observing what others do, and never gave up until she could do it as easy as breathing. At a young age, Shamir had grown up on her own. She had refused all offers to help, and she did not offer to help others. She saw herself as someone who could only look out for themselves.

Whenever Serpent was not on the hunt for more prey, Shamir would spend her free time on training or exploring. She quickly became one of Serpent's best scouts and was often the go to, when Serpent needed more intel on a potential target. As she grew up, Shamir quickly saw herself unwilling to do her job as a member of Serpent. The other members saw it as treason and urged Derek to kick her from the group. But Derek saw her potential and refused everyone who had asked.

It was around the time of Shamir's 12th birthday, did she finally decided that she had enough of associating herself with Serpent. So, the same night, when it was her turn for the night shift. As soon as she made sure everyone was asleep, Shamir grabbed her spear and bow, and fled into the darkness. Not long after during the morning of the next day did everyone finally realize that Shamir had left on her own accord.

**Present day**

As Shamir continued to let her mind drift, a sudden sound nearby completely went by her. It wasn't until she realized that she was now face to face with a smiling Natsu did it register that was still undressed and gave him a hard slap across his cheek before quickly grabbing her clothes and running off to go change.

A minute later and one Natsu with a glowing red hand on his cheek, was sitting next the campfire he had built up prior to his hunt. Currently being cooked was what Shamir believed to be a type of boar, but she wasn't completely sure. It didn't take long for the meal to be ready and both teens dug in.

**Natsu POV**

Now with both of their stomachs full, Natsu had left Shamir by the campfire to go wash up in the river. A few minutes of cleaning later and Natsu was now standing on the riverbank using his fire to dry both himself and his clothes off. At the same time, he was going over all the information he received from Shamir about this Serpent.

According to Shamir they still had a few more days of walking till they reached the perimeter of Serpent's base. Upon reaching said perimeter, they would then form a plan to take down everyone present. Personally, Natsu did not want to spend longer than he wanted to on this particular group. But since he was technically tagging along to help Shamir, he would let her take the lead on this.

It was now dark and Natsu had let Shamir go to sleep first. Volunteering to take the first shift on watch. Sitting up in a tree, Natsu easily hid himself from the non-observant, and kept watch over their camp. He used the silence and the quiet snores of Shamir to his advantage. He could hear the nocturnal animals doing their own things throughout the area. He could also hear the water flowing in the river heading downstream.

Ordinarily, a typical human on night duty would only hear what they could, and be blind by all other aspects. Natsu had made good usage of his enhanced senses. By setting up an invisible ring which represented his range of hearing, he could easily tell the difference in noises everything within would make. Including any would be ambushers that would normally be able to get close to their camp.

It was now a few hours into the night shift and Natsu could only hear the sounds of nature. Down below, Shamir was still asleep, her quiet snoring being quite cute in Natsu's view. The rest of the night went by without any incident and by the time, Shamir had woken up for her shift, it was the dawn of the next day. Almost instantly she could not find sight of Natsu but it wasn't until she heard a thud, did she turn to face the noise, and see Natsu sitting on the ground, looking tired and rubbing a large bump on his head.

Laughing at his misfortune, Shamir soon helped him up on his feet and together, the two of them went out to go hunt for breakfast. Breaking camp as they did. An hour went by and with their bellies full once more, Shamir and Natsu set off for the Serpent.

**Elsewhere**

We now switch over to a certain red-haired knight as she had once more taken a stop in a local pub. Erza had a more or less uneventful trip back home after the events back in Everspire. Now a few hours away from the closest train station, Erza was currently resting in town for the day, when she caught wind of a rather peculiar conversation.

"I'm telling ya man, once we get Lullaby. The whole world will bow their head to our whim." Said this clearly drunk man. The aforementioned man was currently seated at another place in the bar around a table with his other fellow drunks. All of whom have had several drinks. The others, at least those who were sober enough, tried their best to get em to shut up about it. But their leader silenced them all before he spoke up. "Don't worry too much about it. Go report back to Erigor and tell him I'll get it for him."

Of course, at the mention of Erigor, the head of a small-time dark guild. Erza immediately concluded that they weren't delusional. Silently she kept listening in on the conversation to hear more, but they didn't say much more about it. It was around this time that Erza had wanted to go up to them and make them spill the beans on their plan, until the bartender had delivered her order. Said order being a slice of strawberry cake. So, she let it slip her mind as she dug in and savored every bite of her cake. By the time she had remembered to go ask them, they were all gone.

Frustrated, she reported in to her Guild master that she was heading home, and left immediately. Though, not before ordering another slice of strawberry cake to go. It wasn't long after that as she was sitting on the train, did she start to form a mental plan on who she needed to bring with her to take down Erigor and his guild.

Even though she herself was an S-class mage, she knew that it's a fatal mistake to underestimate your enemy. Thus, once she got back, she would pick up some of her strongest mages.

**Back with Natsu and Shamir**

It was now noon of the final day of their travel, and they had finally arrived at the perimeter of Serpent's base. From their spot, they could easily see the lone building in the distance. To Shamir, it was a reminder of where she had come from. To Natsu, it was a building that his target hid within. So now that they had arrived, it was time for Shamir's plan.

"ok Natsu, let's go over it one more time. 1st you create a distraction and draw as many of them to you as you can. Due to the fact that no one had come back alive from the recent raid on Everspire, I do not expect there to be a large number of bandits still residing within. But it's been several years since I was a member and their numbers could have grown in that time." She took a moment to catch her breath before continuing. "At the same time, I'll be sneaking in the back whilst the guards are fighting you. I wish to deal with my father myself so please don't interfere regardless of what you hear." At this, Natsu could easily tell Shamir was determined to finally end this and agreed.

As Shamir continued to explain her plan, Natsu giving a simple nod of understanding. Derek's personal guard was silently observing them back in the base. He could easily tell what they were talking about, but chose to not inform Derek. He was highly confident that whatever the two's plan was, Derek would crush it completely.

**A few hours later**

It was now dusk and most of the bandits are starting to lie down in their own quarters for the night when a massive explosion rocked the front entrance. Immediately everyone had rushed over to the source and were met with a teen who was currently incased in fire. Readying their weapons for battle, they rushed the man who simply held up his right hand and focused the fire to his palm. Some of them soon stopped to see what the man was planning when the fire now focused into his palm burst forwards right for them. While a few of them were able to avoid it, anyone who wasn't fast enough was light ablaze and it didn't take long for them to perish.

Anyone who survived the attack continued to charge right for this intruder. Natsu, just sighed and quickly charged some magic into his legs. With both of his feet on fire, he jumped right for the nearest bandit and delivered a flaming left kick to the head, upon connecting, the bandit felt his entire body fly off in the same direction as the kick as the force of which snapped his neck and killed him instantly.

Landing back on his feet, and both still alight, Natsu ducked under a horizontal slash and used his hands to deal spinning fire kicks to everyone within reach, all of which that connected were very powerful and those lucky enough to survive the kicks themselves were caught ablaze by the stray fire. Now back on his feet, Natsu extinguished his fire and sent the magic to both of his hands. To a bystander it basically looked as if Natsu had moved the fire up his body and to his hands. Quickly grabbing the blade of a sword coming straight for him, he easily melted the whole thing, and tossed the molten metal right at the wielder. On contact it stuck to the user like glue and burned him severely. At the same time, Natsu shifted his head out of the way of an oncoming jab from a spear.

Easily knocking the spear's sharp end away from his face, Natsu used the momentum to grab his current attacker's neck and unleashed a powerful torrent of flame that made short work of both the man and his spear, as well as those unfortunate enough to stand behind him. Now left with a somewhat open space for breathing room, Natsu calmed down his flames and gave his foes a smirk as he waited for their next move.

**With Shamir**

Around the rear of the building we rejoin Shamir as she began scaling up the outside wall. As she was climbing, she could easily hear the screams of the bandits as they stood no chance against Natsu and his fire. Maintaining her focus on climbing, she soon stopped at a certain window and silently opened it. Hopping through the open window, she looked around and saw that she was back in her old room. Though it was now disheveled and no longer her room, she could tell that it was indeed the one she grew up in. A few drifting memories surfaced, but she dismissed them and proceeded to open the door.

In the hallway, she could easily remember where her father's office was and headed in said direction. Since everyone was still struggling against Natsu, she believed she would meet very little if any resistance at all. Soon enough, she stood outside of her father's office. Sure enough, she could also hear him release a sigh of exhaustion. Placing her hand on the doorknob, her instincts tried to warn her but were too late when all of a sudden, an explosion blew open the door from the inside. Some of the fragments instantly lodged into her left leg. Now on her back, attempting to regain her footing, she could hear the loud footsteps approaching her from behind. Turning her head around to look, she wasn't surprised to see the last head of Serpent, Lloyd.

Standing at more or less the same height as Natsu, Lloyd easily matched both Garret and Paul in power. He had faded orange hair that seemed to comb over a shaved head. Lloyd didn't use traditional weapons, rather he relied mostly on his magic.

Shamir clutched her wounded leg and could easily tell that while she could still stand, with such an injury, trying to keep her balance and fight Lloyd at the same time was not going to be easy. Now standing face to face with Lloyd she managed to take out her spear to help her both fight, and keep her balance. At the same time, Lloyd didn't say anything but merely flicked his wrist at her. In less than a second, Shamir was hit right in the chest by a shockwave. Said shockwave easily knocked her off of her feet and she went flying backwards hitting the ground a few meters away.

Once more lying on her back, Shamir managed enough strength to look at Lloyd. Lloyd just stood there emotionless, but she could tell he was serious. After a half a minute to sit up, Shamir grabbed at the fragment in her leg and pulled them out. The pain now somewhat subsided as the adrenaline kicked in, she allowed the blood to flow out her wound and she quickly got back up and readied herself for a long fight.

**With Natsu**

Not much of note has happened since we last saw our pink-haired Dragonslayer. Though there were a smaller number of bandits inside than there were originally, the remaining had all decided to concede defeat and were rounded up in a corner of the building. Natsu was currently sitting atop one of the still-intact tables as he waited for Shamir. He could hear the shockwaves rock the upper part of the building but did not go up to investigate. Merely believing that Shamir knew what she was getting into. Around the same time, he heard a voice echo in his current room. "Well met their stranger, while I don't appreciate the fact that you have killed off most of my members. I must give you some credit for lasting as long as you have against Serpent." Turning around the face the source, Natsu came face to face with a man standing up on a balcony that overlooked Natsu's current position. He easily put two and two together and figured out that this man in front of him was Derek.

"So, you're the one who's in charge around here?" Natsu asked in confirmation. At the question Derek merely gave him a nod in return. His question answered, Natsu casually tossed a sizeable fireball at Derek only to watch as the later jumped out of the way and let the fireball hit the balcony. No sooner than this, Derek landed on the ground face to face with Natsu. Now in clear view, Natsu took a good look at Derek.

Derek stood a few inches taller than Natsu and had a body of an athlete. With short cropped black hair, and a full goatee, Derek easily gave off an aura of authority. In terms of clothing, Derek wore a pair of grey pants and a black long-sleeved t-shirt. While Natsu was sizing Derek up, Derek was also sizing Natsu up.

Both having now finished sizing each other up, Natsu again launched another fireball at Derek. The later once more dodging out of the way and quickly closed the gap between them. Slightly taken aback by how fast he was, Natsu almost left himself completely open and brought both of his arms in to block a right hook for his gut. The force of the impact easily knocked Natsu into the wall and the collision left a several cracks in said wall. Quickly dislodging himself from the wall, Natsu ducked under another fast jab that hit and shattered the wall behind him. At the same time, Natsu used his opening to unleash a fiery right hook of his own and managed to connect with his target.

However unlike with Natsu, Derek only skidded back a few feet. At this, Natsu immediately knew he had to get serious if he even wanted a chance to compete with Derek. Quickly both opponents closed the gap between each other and exchanged a series of blows. Each one just as strong as the last.

**With Shamir**

Back in the hallway, Shamir once again was blown backwards by the force of Lloyd's shockwave. Managing to stand once more, she quickly formed a plan. Within a second, she bolted right for Lloyd with her spear aimed to strike his gut. Lloyd silent as ever, merely flicked his wrist once more and upon contact, flung Shamir back again. However, using the force of the shockwave, Shamir took her spear and thrusted it into the ground. The spear strained to stay intact as it felt the sudden stop in motion. Upon rebound, the spear launched Shamir forwards rapidly towards Lloyd.

Giving another sigh, Lloyd again flicked his wrist and unleashed another shockwave. But was stunned when Shamir had deflected it with one of her arrows. At a closer look, he noticed it was a magical arrow. This arrow in particular was made to block magic. Now close enough to Lloyd, Shamir crashed full force into him. Sending both of them through Derek's office and down into the main floor below where Derek and Natsu were fighting.

**With Natsu**

Back in the fist fight, Natsu had just been knocked back once more by a strong jab when both fighters heard a crash come from upstairs. Much to his shock, Natsu watched as both Shamir and some man came crashing down to their floor. On impact, the fall kicked up a large amount of dust and Natsu could barely see the outcome of Shamir's fight. Of course, he wasn't given the time to wait as Derek burst through the dust cloud and launched a torrent of powerful blows.

Doing his best to counter every blow, Natsu struggled to keep up with Derek's speed and strength. Although once the later started to slow down, Natsu took the offensive and knocked Derek back a few feet, and released his own torrent of fire that quickly caught up to Derek and impacted. Giving himself a moment to breathe, he once more looked over to Shamir, and gave himself a small smirk seeing that she was more or less alright and the other man had an arrow pierced his chest and killed the man.

Using Natsu's distraction to his advantage once more, Derek burst forth from the smoke and dealt a strong punch to Natsu's face. Said blow launched Natsu through the building and onto his back outside. Though it didn't do much damage overall, the blow did daze him temporarily.

Around the same time, Shamir had finally built up enough energy to take a look around. One of the 1st things she noticed was her father. Standing tall facing the outside. With the adrenaline gone, all the pain and fatigue she had brushed aside earlier caught up with her and came down like a sledgehammer. She knew she couldn't fight any further. But once she got her bearings, she soon realized that this was the same room Natsu was creating a distraction in.

Concern for the teen took hold and she scanned the area for him. It wasn't long after when she saw Natsu hop up and onto his feet and face her father once more. Though she knew that Natsu wasn't exactly hurt. Concern for his wellbeing came forth as she called out to him. "You need to be cautious. Derek uses enhancement magic."

As she gave Natsu the heads up, Derek finally noticed her presence and gave her a disapproving look. Regardless Derek did not say anything to her and Shamir did not say anything to her father. They were no longer family anymore so they didn't need to say anything. Through the silence, Natsu spoke up. "So that's what it is? Doesn't matter to me either way." He finished, igniting his hands with fire once more.

The time to talk had long since passed and now it was the time to end it once and for all. Both men blitzed forth and met in the middle with flurries of fists clashing against one another. Derek managed to get a good hit in that sent Natsu into the ceiling, but Natsu used the momentum behind the attack and rebounded off the top and delivered a flaming axe kick. Derek managed to block it but the force combined with the addition of gravity brought Derek to his knees. Something that surprised both him and Shamir. Taking his other leg, Natsu quickly dealt a flaming spin kick which knocked Derek's upper body back.

Upon landing, Natsu sent a stream of fire out of his elbow to boost the speed of an already powerful jab. Though it did connect, Natsu was slightly surprised to see that Derek had managed to catch it. Not releasing his grip on Natsu, Derek proceeded to pound blow after blow into Natsu. After a few minutes Natsu ducked under a blow to the face and flipped himself over Derek's arm. Using both of his legs, he wrapped them around Derek's still outstretched arm and locked it in tight to deal a devastating knee strike.

The resulting blow broke Derek's arm and loosened his grip on Natsu. Now clutching his broken arm, Derek stood by as Natsu flexed his hand and watched in defeat as Natsu bolted right for him with his hand resembling a dragon's claw. The result was bloody. Derek was barely hanging on to life as the final attack had pierced everything it came into contact with, muscles, bones, and all.

Derek was now lying on the ground struggling to even breathe as the blood continued to flow from out of his body. Shamir was rightfully surprised and didn't really know how to react. On one hand, Serpent was now over and she didn't have to worry about them anymore. On the other, the father who gave her life, and the clan whom she grew up with were all now gone.

Now wasn't the time to reflect on the day's events and everyone still breathing understood that much. So, Natsu slowly walked up to Shamir and picked her up and threw her over his shoulder, before proceeding to head out. Shamir for her part, couldn't do anything but blush in embarrassment. As for those who admitted defeat, they would remain in place refusing to move even when the rune knights showed up later the same day.

**Alright and that wraps up a slightly longer chapter. Hope you all enjoyed, thanks for your continued support. A quick Q&A before we wrap up. Derek's magic as stated by Shamir is enhancement. Basic terms it means that Derek is physically stronger speed and strength wise. Shamir's magical arrow is one of many of her arrows and has a slightly larger arrowhead. Lloyd's magic is known as **_**Shockwave**_**. Short term it means that by manipulating the air nearby, in Lloyd's case through flicking his wrist, it can cause a small amount of that air to quickly compact and release creating a shockwave. Lloyd however, is not an expert user of Shockwave magic though. That's all for now, so I will see you later.**


	6. Chapter 4

**Hello and welcome back to another chapter. Before we begin, I would like to mention that pairings are still undecided and will continue to be so unless I say otherwise ahead of time. Once more Arnighte and myself do not own anything from Fairy Tail or associated franchises. That's all for now, so Let's get started.**

**Somewhere**

It had been a couple months since the extermination of Serpent. Over the course of said months Natsu and Shamir were travelling. Wandering from place to place with no destination in mind. Currently they were yet again walking along a dirt path through a forest. Shamir was using a makeshift walking stick as her leg had yet to fully heal. The destination of today's travel was to make it to the next town and get a medical update on her leg by a local doctor.

Having thoroughly looked over a map earlier the same day, they saw that the closest town to their current position would be a place called Oak Town. Neither one of them had been to this town before, but they didn't want to chance another fight with some random bandits, so Shamir convinced Natsu to set a course for Oak Town and take a chance there.

The sounds of nature gave Shamir another opportunity to reflect on everything that had happened after the battle with Serpent.

**Flashback**

_The very next day after the fall of Serpent, Shamir had woken up to find herself in her old home. She first thought everything to have originally been a dream until she tried to stand up and collapsed on the spot. Immediately the pain from her still wounded leg notified her that the events of yesterday were real. Managing to sit up and lean against her bedframe, Shamir took the time to examine her injury. The first thing she noticed was that her leg was wrapped up in a splint._

_After she finished checking over her own injuries, the next thing she noticed was that she was in her underwear, and Natsu was sleeping in her bed. Internally she was freaking out, on the outside Shamir's face turned a deep crimson. After a few minutes of her crisis, she decided to try and get Natsu to wake up. It took a few tries, and a lot of struggling on her part. In the end, she did manage to get Natsu to wake up. Now being who he is, Natsu was completely oblivious to the fact that both Shamir and himself were in their undergarments and sleeping in the same bed._

_On the contrary, when Natsu woke up. He was relieved that Shamir was alright. It was a split second after this that Shamir requested his help to help her sit up and on the bed. Not long after both teens were sitting on the bed together, Shamir now resting her back against Natsu's side. "I suppose this means that I am now in your debt, Natsu. Once my leg starts to get better, I'll head out and meet you in your travels." She said._

_Her original plan for this was to give herself time to both heal and move on. Her father had just been killed and the folks who raised her were either dead or behind bars, even if they were bandits, Shamir still had some minor feelings for them. Now that would be the plan but instead of listening to her, Natsu merely gave her a smile and picked her up and sprinted out of the house, but not before remembering to gather their belongings prior. The two could be heard rather loudly that day, with Shamir blushing in embarrassment and frantically yelling for Natsu to put her down, and Natsu laughing all the way._

_It wasn't till they reached another gap in the mountains did Natsu finally put her down and received a hard slap to his face. While he did understand that he really did deserve that. He allowed Shamir to calm down and spoke up. "Sorry about that, but I don't feel like waiting around for you to get better, let's go together and see all that this world has to offer." His words not only reached Shamir, but they also doubled to inspire her to keep moving forward. With a nod of approval, the two set off to travel the land._

**Back in the Present**

Shamir was abruptly brought out of her thoughts when Natsu suddenly picked her up and swung her entire body to the side. She was about to scold Natsu for not giving her a warning, when she noticed that she had almost walked right off the cliff in front of them. "Thanks for that." She quietly said. She didn't want Natsu to hear it, but hear it he did anyway and gave her a smile in return. Now back out of her thoughts, Shamir took in their surroundings and quickly noticed that they had unintentionally scaled a cliff and were currently standing atop the peak.

In the distance, the two could see a medieval style town with a large river that ran through the middle. The entire town was rather large with numerous buildings throughout the whole area. Further beyond that, while Shamir couldn't see that far away, Natsu could make out a lone tower. Figuring the tower in the distance was like an early warning system, Natsu turned to face Shamir who was also taking in the town. Quickly getting her attention, Natsu explained that the town they see before them is their destination. They had arrived at Oak Town.

**Elsewhere**

We rejoin a certain red-haired knight along with three of her guildmates, as they are heading back to Magnolia after finishing yet another request. things had also been rather eventful for Erza once she had returned to the guild. The first thing to happen was upon her return, she quickly scolded everyone in the guild about not following the guild rules, then she met Lucy Heartfillia. Lucy is a blonde-haired teen around the same age as Natsu **(canon human years) **she had joined the guild just a week ago after a mishap meeting with Gray. Speaking of which Erza also asked for Gray and Elfman to join her on a certain assignment. Gray is a teen with spikey black hair. Gray was currently static, halfway in to putting his clothes back on. As Gray has an unfortunate habit of stripping unconsciously, he is often punished more severely by Erza. The final mage of Erza's request, Elfman, is a tall muscular teen who had a very unhealthy complex over manliness. He has white spiky hair and is the sole male of the Strauss siblings. As the brother of both Mirajane, the bartender of Fairy Tail, and Lisanna, part-time waiter for Fairy Tail, he took on the role of getting strong enough to keep both of his sisters safe.

The one thing everyone did fear was Erza's punishments. Mira used to be her rival and the one thing that kept Erza in check, until a near-death event which almost cost her sister's life, had changed how Mira behaves. Erza had requested both Gray and Elfman as the three of them were the only ones strong enough to go fight Erigor and his guild. Lucy also decided to tag along to further her learning experience and all together, they formed one of the Fairy Tail's best, if not strongest, teams in the history of the guild.

At present Team Erza had just arrived in Magnolia. As they headed back to the guildhall to report in, they failed to notice the looks of pity from the local townsfolk. Upon their arrival to the vicinity of the guildhall, they were shocked to discover their guildhall impaled several times over with large iron beams. It was a giant mess and the team wanted to know who would do such a thing. Not long after they were brought up to speed by a solemn Mira who had informed them that the guild's rival, Phantom Lord, was responsible.

This new bit of information pissed everyone and they sought to get permission from Makarov, Fairy Tail's guild master, to go and attack Phantom. Though they weren't pleased to find the small man completely drunk. It was around this time that they were told that the guildhall had been attacked when no one was present, therefore Makarov decided to not retaliate against Phantom Lord, much to Gray's dismay.

That evening, as per instructed, the guild members left for their homes in groups. The whole idea behind this was that if any of them were attacked by Phantom, they'd have a number advantage and the resulting fight would draw the attention of more people. That was the idea behind the plan at least. However, it was instantly turned up on its head when a blue-haired young girl named Levy and her two teammates were suddenly attacked.

The next day, Lucy had just woken up to the sound of commotion coming from the nearby park. Quickly putting on some clothes she departed to find out what had happened and was the 1st member to arrive at the scene. What she saw next, shook her to her core. Nailed to the tree was her best friend Levy, and Levy's teammates. On Levy's chest was the insignia of Phantom Lord. It wasn't long after this, did Makarov himself show up with his cane in hand.

It was obvious to anyone present that Makarov was furious, and with a promise of vengeance, after snapping his cane, He gathered all of the present members of Fairy Tail together and led the march over to Phantom Lord's Guildhall.

**Back with Natsu's group**

Over in Oak Town, Natsu and Shamir were currently staying at a local inn for the night. Shamir was resting in their room, while Natsu was out and about on a shopping trip. As Natsu was bargaining with a local merchant, his ears caught the faint noise of battle in the distance. From the direction, it sounded like the battle was originating from a distant building, near the outskirts of town. Choosing to ignore it as it had nothing to do with him. He refocused his attention back on the merchant. After purchasing some supplies for the road, he was heading back to the inn, when his enhanced eyesight spotted what looked like a giant spiderlike structure raising itself up and out of the ground before it proceeded to walk off.

Now somewhat curious as to what's going on, he could faintly hear the large legs impacting with the ground. So quickly heading back to the room. He opened the door to see Shamir standing there in her underwear, half way in to putting a shirt on. She had immediately noticed his presence and blushed a bright red before throwing the closest thing in her reach, a table lamp.

Easily dodging the throw, Natsu swiftly apologized and closed the door behind him. A few minutes later, a fearful Natsu and a quiet Shamir were walking through the forest in the same direction as the giant building Natsu had seen earlier. It was a few hours post noon, and the two were pretty far into the woods, when Shamir pulled Natsu off to the side and had him focus his attention on her. Taking a deep breath, Shamir spoke what was on her mind. "Natsu, would you be able to teach me some magic?" listening carefully, Natsu gave it some thought before answering. "I can help you unlock your magic container, but I don't know what kind of Magic you want to learn."

What Natsu said was pretty reasonable, as Shamir herself had yet to decide on a type of magic she wanted to learn. In her younger days, she was always fascinated by the large variety of magic, people were able to use. At present, she felt that adding magic to her arsenal, it would help her fight even stronger opponents. Serpent, while tough, was a group of people that Shamir had a lot of info on, therefore her fights against the members of Serpent were relatively easy as she was already used to the member's fighting styles.

If she were to come across a strong foe that she didn't know, she would be in a pretty bad position, considering she didn't know anything about how they fight. After a few more minutes to think it over, she gave Natsu her approval, and they took the time to establish a good area for practice. Not long after, Natsu was sitting on a stump, observing Shamir as she was in a lotus position with her eyes closed. As per instructed, Shamir was trying to focus on her spirit.

A minute passed and she could slightly feel the ethernano of the nearby environment flow into her body. The feeling of ethernano entering her body was akin to relaxing in a warm bath. As the ethernano was gathering in her body, Natsu could sense that it was slowly building. Soon enough it stopped flowing inside Shamir, and she opened her eyes to see Natsu's attention elsewhere. Calling out to him, she watched him shake his head slightly and brought his attention back to herself.

"Well, how do you feel?" he asked rather curious on Shamir's opinion. She didn't answer right away as she was currently focused on getting her blood flowing again after being idle for several minutes. "It felt so warm, I didn't think that ethernano could be felt in such a way." She replied. Now back on her feet, Natsu had her try and channel the ethernano in her body to her hand. It took a while but Shamir finally got it to work. Albeit she still had no idea what to do now. Currently in her hand was a small ball of golden light. Taking a moment to observe her magic, Natsu made a quick guess and had her try to throw it.

Complying almost instantly, Shamir put her whole body into it and it left her hand with ease, right into Natsu, which upon collision, sent him into several trees, breaking most of them. Laughing her ass off, Shamir was ecstatic that she was able to cast magic proper, though after helping Natsu up listened carefully as he explained that not all types of magic need to use the whole body of motion for it to work. So once more, Shamir gathered the ethernano in her body to her hand, and once more, a golden ball of magic was formed. This time, Natsu had Shamir focus on throwing the magic ball using just the arm that formed it. Giving it some effort, Natsu watched as the ball left her hand and traveled at a moderate speed and impacted a tree, which left a small crater in the tree.

Based on what he saw, Natsu believed that Shamir's magic was formed around a standard light spell, though said light had a physical form. It wasn't long after that Shamir feel herself drained, Natsu quickly explained that her current magic container was about the same size as a mage in training. He also explained that it would take a balance of both meditation and casting spells to increase her magic container. At the moment, Shamir could only cast 3 basic spells before feeling drained.

For the rest of the day, Natsu and Shamir worked on increasing her magic container. By the end of said day, she felt it was only slightly bigger than what she had started with. Soon night arrived and they decided to rest up for the next day of travel. The night came and went with only the resident animals to make any kind of noise.

**Sorry it took far longer than I had originally expected. Anyhow here yea go. A short QnA before we wrap up, why didn't Natsu go investigate the commotion over at Phantom's base. Well Natsu felt it would be a pain to go and deal with something that had nothing to do with him. What kind of magic does Shamir actually have. That's for me to know and you to learn. Anyhow that's all for now so I hope you all enjoyed and I will see you when I see you.**


	7. Chapter 5

**Hello and welcome back to another chapter, not much to say this time around. Once more Arnighte and myself don't own anything from Fairy Tail or associated franchises. That's all for now so, Let's get started.**

It was now the dawn of the next day and the duo were currently taking down their tent. It wasn't long after during breakfast did Natsu hear a man start speaking through a loudspeaker. The voice was rather distant meaning they still had around 6hrs of travelling until they reached the source. Now that would ordinarily be the case had Natsu immediately bolted straight for the source of the man's voice. He couldn't hear much from the short conversation, but he could sense the malice in the man's voice. Not long after he could also feel a lot of magical energy begin to build up further up ahead.

**At the source of the voice**

Up ahead in a nearby town. There lay the same mechanical spiderlike structure Natsu had seen back in Oak Town, fully powered by magic and manned by one of the strongest light guilds in the entire country. This giant building easily spooked the local residents and unnerved the resident guild. At the center of its body, there resided a massive magic cannon. Said cannon was currently charging magic in its core in preparation to blast all the residents into oblivion. Its target was the town of Magnolia, and the resident guild and rival, Fairy Tail.

**Flashback**

Quickly rewinding to the end of yesterday's events, Fairy Tail had just returned from their failed siege on Phantom Lord's guildhall. The number of casualties were large on both sides and luckily no one was dead. While Phantom had taken very large casualties, some of the members of Fairy Tail, mainly guild master Makarov, were pretty banged up.

Makarov had taken a heavy hit from one of Phantom's S-Class mages and had a large majority of his magic drained out of his body. The spell used "Drain" would normally be of little use against people or magical creatures with little to no magic abilities, but for a powerful wizard such as a guild master, having most of your magic drained in a single instance can be fatal. With Makarov out of the fight, the morale of Fairy Tail plummeted fast.

With Erza as the temporary leader, everyone was ordered to retreat and reluctantly left for their Fairy Tail. As it turned out, Phantom's real goal was to kidnap Lucy and use her as ransom against her father, whom she had run away from when she was a young girl. Lucy had been abducted back in Magnolia and was taken to Jose's tower. Luckily, she outwitted the guildmaster and was saved by Gray. Now it was the dawn of the next day and Erza was reflecting in the shower over the previous day's events. Outside, the ground soon started to shake and alerted everyone to the mechanoid structure that was making its way to them through the lake.

**Present**

Erza having almost no time to throw some clothes on, wrapped herself up in a towel and quickly joined the rest of the guild members outside. Commanding the giant robot was none other than Phantom's guildmaster Jose Porla. While Erza and the others waited to see what Jose had planned. Up in the robot itself, a sole teen whose facial features were covered by the shadow, slowly rose to their feet. A few seconds later they gave off a sinister grin before jumping off the building itself. Darting into town.

No one noticed the man, as Jose's robot kept their attention. It was around this time that Jose issued his demands over a magical loudspeaker. "MEASLY FAIRIES, I HAVE BUT ONE DEMAND. REFUSE, AND I'LL WIPE YOU AND YOUR TOWN OFF THE MAP. HAND OVER LUCY HEARTFILLIA." Of course, the stubborn members of Fairy Tail completely refused to give in. and Jose was more than happy to fire Jupiter (the name of the massive cannon).

As everyone reluctantly stood by and watched their demise coming closer, Erza quickly moved up to the front of everyone and requipped into her Adamantine armor, one of absolute defense. Swiftly slamming both halves of her shield together, she then proceeded to slam it into the ground and braced herself as a large magic barrier formed in front of her. Much to everyone surprise, some of the members of Fairy Tail, Gray included tried to dissuade her from trying to block it. She stubbornly refused of course and it wasn't long after that the blast connected with her barrier at full force. The two forces pushed against each other for a few seconds as Erza's armor slowly started to crack. A few minutes later, the whole thing shattered into pieces sending Erza flying into the guildhall, and the blast itself dissipated.

Jose had expected for his Jupiter to punch right through her defense. Still he was impressed that she could block it and even stop it completely. Regardless his anger at Fairy Tail was unrelenting as he spoke up once more. "YOU'VE ONLY BOUGHT YOURSELF 15MINS, WITH YOUR BEST CHANCE AT STOPPING ME OUT OF THE PICTURE. GIVE IN OR BE ANNHILIATED." At this time, Lucy begged the guild to allow her to help in the fight. But Mira and a few other members reminded her that Phantom's target was Lucy. When she refused to sit back and watch, Mira cast a sleep spell on her and had Reedus take her to a local safehouse.

From the shadows, the man we saw back on Jose's robot, was listening in to their conversation, and silently tailed Reedus to their hideout. A couple minutes of travel and both Reedus and a still sleeping Lucy had arrived at the safehouse, an old storehouse. It wasn't long after did Lucy finally wake up and realize what happened. Immediately after this, their pursuer burst in through the front door and knocked out Reedus. As it turns out, the man who was tailing them is Phantom's strongest member, the iron dragonslayer Gajeel. Just after Reedus' body hit the ground, Gajeel bolted right for Lucy. Within seconds he stopped right in front of her and startled her at his speed. Before Lucy could even make a noise, Gajeel had buried his fist into her stomach, the blow knocking her out cold. Throwing her up and over her shoulders, he quickly made his way back to Jose's robot. Which was still recharging after the last blast.

**With Fairy Tail**

Back at the guildhall, all of the members were fighting back against the shades that Jose had dispatched. It was mostly one-sided as the shades couldn't be dealt with by most types of magic, the only exception seemed to be light-based magic. However, Fairy Tail's light mages were few, therefore Gray got Elfman and Mira together to go stop the Jupiter cannon.

With Erza still recovering from her bout with the blast of Jupiter, Gray originally planned for both himself and Elfman to go lay siege. Mira had overheard it and insisted on coming along, even though all three knew that Mira couldn't use her best magic. So, it was decided that Elfman and Mira would stick together and Gray would go solo. Putting Cana in charge of the defense, the three started making their way over to the robot.

Upon reaching the coast where the land met the lake's edge. Gray used his ice magic to freeze the water. Making a path that led straight to Phantom Lord in the process. Quickly all three started to run across the ice if Jupiter was fired now, the impact could easily shatter the ice path and they would be stuck in the water. A few minutes passed and the trio finally reached one of the legs of the spiderlike building. Combining Gray's Ice and Elfman's strength, they made a large enough hole for them to enter. 

**With Natsu**

Around this time, Natsu burst out of the woods and saw everything that was going on. He could hear the noises of battle all the way from up on the clifftop. Though he didn't understand what was going on, he easily realized that the spiderlike robot he and Shamir had been following was now poised to destroy the whole town. With his fists clenched even tighter and the veins now showing on his face, he quickly unclenched his hands before igniting his feet. Using the flames to fly him over to the massive robot. He once more failed to see Shamir emerge from the brush behind him, the later having just sprinted and exhausted herself in an effort to try and match Natsu's uncanny speed.

As Shamir watched Natsu flying through the air, she also noticed his destination and the surroundings. Quickly putting two and two together, she understood what Natsu was planning. Taking her bow out, she carefully made a mental plan to cover Natsu's flight so he wouldn't exhaust himself before even reaching the robot. It wasn't long after did some of the shades that were flying through the air had noticed Natsu and decided to target him. Easily notching an arrow, Shamir took a deep breath and released the arrow. Within a few seconds the arrow found its home in the body of a shade. Destroying both the shade and her arrow. The volley of covering fire, and oncoming shades continued, and Natsu managed to keep progressing forwards without being distractions.

A few minutes of flight went by and around this time, Natsu had finally reached his destination, the magical cannon itself. Slowly descending to land on the cannon, he was about to proceed to destroy it when he noticed he was being watched by Gajeel. The latter having heard Natsu land on Jupiter. For a few seconds the two watched each other, both quietly observing what the other would do. Not long after did Gajeel get tired of waiting and made himself known.

"I wasn't expecting the fairies to have a dragonslayer of their own. Had I known I would've found you earlier." He said. Still not sure what was going on Natsu replied. "I believe your mistaken, I am not a member of Fairy Tail." Of course, this made Gajeel's grin even wider as he was eager to start a fight. "Fairy or not, there isn't enough room for two dragons in the sky. So, I'm gonna do us both a favor and put you down."

Reluctantly Natsu got into a fighting stance ready to end this seemingly joke of a fight. In the split second it took him to get into position, Gajeel blitzed right for him. His speed nearly caught Natsu off guard who at the last minute managed to put up a quick guard and intercept a straight jab from an arm completely coated in iron scales. The new look, intrigued Natsu who could easily feel the force behind the blow. He didn't give it much thought as on reflex, he ducked under a sweeping left kick to his chest. Reacting quickly, he grabbed the same leg and used it to bring himself close and delivered his best right hook at the short range.

Upon connecting with Gajeel's face he was mildly surprised to see that Gajeel had hardly moved an inch and that his face was also covered in iron scales. Retracting his fist, Natsu could feel the pain from the shock but easily shook it off. Not a second later, Natsu ignited his left arm with fire and started to send a flaming elbow, until he felt the wind leave his lungs as Gajeel had struck first with a strong uppercut that connected with his chest. The blow altogether had knocked Natsu back some distance, but it didn't send him far. Checking his surroundings while keeping his focus on Gajeel, he noted that he was near the edge of the cannon which he could feel was still concentrating a lot of magic just inside.

Bringing his full attention back to Gajeel, he was slightly annoyed to see that Gajeel had blitzed right for him again. However, unlike last time, Natsu just tilted his head out of the way of a powerful left hook and returned the favor with a flaming headbutt. While Natsu could still feel the pain from his head impacting with Gajeel's iron scales, he was grinning when he noticed that the blow had also gotten through the latter's defense.

Now with the blood pumping throughout his veins, Natsu quickly grabbed Gajeel by the face and sped right for the cannon's core. With his strength and catching Gajeel off guard, Natsu was easily able to carry Gajeel. Stopping just in front of the only wall that separated the core from the outside, Natsu spun Gajeel around and used the momentum to slam him into the wall and shatter it. At the same time, he had also released Gajeel from his grip which sent the iron dragonslayer flying into the cannon's core.

The core at the time, was nearly full of magic and thus upon impacting with the dragonslayer had released all the built-up energy and shattered into pieces. The core's sole guardian, Phantom's S-Class fire mage, Totomaru, was also caught in the blast and was crippled as a result. The whole series of collisions had alerted both sides to the fight between two dragon slayers.

Shamir had been watching Natsu throughout the whole thing so she was aware of what had happened. The outside forces of Fairy Tail were more than baffled that someone was able to take down Phantom's Jupiter cannon. While Master Jose had been silently fuming as he was aware of the fight the whole time, but hadn't expected much from the newcomer. The small team that consisted of Gray, Mira, and Elfman were also slightly shocked that someone had taken down Phantom's Jupiter cannon as they hadn't even reached the room where the core resided yet.

A whole minute had gone by of nothing but silence. Immediately after, everyone within earshot could hear Jose's evil chuckling. Not long after was everyone who remained outside in for a treat. To the inside group, the entire building felt it was being shifted around. On the outside, the whole building was slowly transforming into a giant magical robot, dubbed the Super Mage Giant Phantom MK ll. (**not lying here its actual canon)**

Once the transformation had been completed, the robot was slowly creating a magic circle. Said circle was IDed by Mira and some of the Fairy defense group as the spell known as Abyss Break. Due to the massive size of the currently unfinished circle, the spell on completion will be strong enough to annihilate everything in its path. Back inside the robot, Mira updated her team with the fact that their new target is Phantom's S-Class known publicly as the Element Four. Picking up the pace, they completely skipped by the room where Natsu and Gajeel had just recovered from their motion sickness. Both of whom were affected by the sickness when the giant robot had been transforming.

Noticing the other dragonslayer was still up and present, the two resumed their fight immediately with Gajeel nailing Natsu in the chest with a powerful iron uppercut. The resulting blow sent Natsu through several floors where he finally stopped flying upwards after ending up in the same room where Lucy was currently struggling with her cuffs.

Curious as to who the newcomer was as Lucy wasn't sure if he was a Fairy or Phantom, she was about to try and get the mage's attention when Gajeel burst upwards through the floors. Still suspended in midair, Gajeel quickly located Natsu and allowed gravity to send him back towards the ground, changing his landing spot to Natsu. Around the same time, Natsu had just opened up his eyes to see Gajeel falling towards him at high speeds and barely rolled out of the way as Gajeel impacted with the floor, sending cracks outwards.

Using the same momentum to get himself up to one knee, Natsu waited for Gajeel through the dust and it didn't take long for Gajeel to come bursting forth. Once more bringing his arms up to block the coming blow, upon connecting with Gajeel's iron fist, the impact sent Natsu back a few feet, with his legs digging into the ground to keep him steady. Once he stopped, Natsu stood up fully and both dragon slayers darted forth towards each other once more. Clashing in the middle with their fists once again, the two pushed against each other in an attempt to send the other flying.

A whole minute went by and neither side gave an inch. Soon Natsu decided to switch up his tactic by easing his arm and using a turning kick to surprise Gajeel. His change in plan paid off, as the sudden transition from using fists to performing a kick caught Gajeel off guard and as a result sent him flying sideways and into a nearby wall, causing it to collapse on him.

**With Gray**

A while back, not too long after the giant took its current form and getting updated on the new targets. Gray and the two Strauss siblings had split up to go find the Element Four. That was a few minutes ago, and Gray had just managed to find his way up and onto the outside section of the robot, only to come to a standoff with a blue haired woman in the rain. The strangest thing about the whole encounter was the fact that as Gray had gotten ready to fight, this newcomer had immediately conceded defeat and turned to leave.

At least that was her original plan until she decided to claim Gray as a lover, and tried to capture him with her water. Of course, Gray mistook this as an attack and froze the orb of water that held him. Not long after did Gray also comment on how gloomy the environment seemed to be with all the rain. Which unbeknownst to him, enraged the women in front of him. Now furious, the women announcing herself as Juvia, declared Gray the same as all others and sought to kill him with boiling hot water.

Stunned at the heat of the water, Gray wasn't able to freeze it and had to dodge her barrage of water attacks. After a close call with a fast blade of water, Gray finally managed to close the distance and used his magic to grab ahold of Juvia and freeze her. Funnily enough, when he opened his eyes, the first thing he noticed that while he did indeed freeze her, he had unintentionally groped her and gave her a massive blush. Blushing immediately in embarrassment, he pulled his hand away which also shattered the ice encasing her. Now in a lovestruck daze, Juvia decided to claim him once more and unleashed a torrent of water to capture him.

Fully annoyed by this point, Gray utilized the full power of his magic and froze all the water in the immediate vicinity, including Juvia's water, and the rain itself. Speaking of the rain, when it was frozen, it had a weird side effect of stopping in motion. Seemingly suspended in midair. The whole thing stunned Juvia, who stood still and watched as Gray hit her with the full force of an Ice Geyser.

Once the Gray dispelled the Geyser, Juvia started falling towards the lake far below. At this point, she had fully admitted defeat and allowed herself to keep falling, believing her life to now be over. However, at the last moment Gray managed to grab her hand and pull her back up onto the robot.

The unexpected move, broke her barrier, and she fell in love with Gray then and there. Of course, she couldn't say anything as her mind was still in a storm of emotions. It was only when the rain stopped and the clouds gave way to a bright and sunny sky, did she finally bring all her thoughts together. Just in time to hear Gray comment on how beautiful the sky looked. Though when Gray asked her if she was ready to fight again, Juvia misinterpreted his words for love-making and passed out on the spot with a lovestruck look on her face.

**With Elfman and Mira several minutes earlier**

Once more turning back the clock, this time we join the Strauss siblings as they are running along a stone pathway that was mostly empty. They were currently looking for one of the Element Four and were so far having no luck. So, focused in their objective that neither of them had realized that they had literally been stepping on one of their targets since they entered the passage. A whole minute of silence had passed until one man had decided to make himself known to the duo, by literally emerging from the ground.

This man in particular spoke with a French accent and began to introduce himself. "Salut ma proie, I am Monsieur Sol, one of the Element Four…" he didn't get to finish as Elfman had immediately tried to blitz him. Though it didn't even seem to phase Sol as he easily bent his body out of the way of Elfman's rapid pattern of attacks. As soon as Elfman had finished his last attack, he was hit with a spinning kick aimed at his head. The blow knocked Elfman back a few feet.

Now fully out of the ground Sol continued talking. "Si vulgaire, if you were a real man you would give me the honor of letting me finish talking." once he finished this particular sentence, he immediately jumped and allowed the ground beneath to seemingly swallow him whole. With both siblings now back to back, they got ready and waited for Sol to make the next move.

Sol did so by stretching out from the ground right in front of Mira, once more everything but his legs were out of the ground, and just like before Sol began talking. "I am rather curious as to how this beauty in front of me could possibly be related to a monstre." This of course got his intended effect of pissing them both off as Elfman angrily charged Sol once more.

As before, Sol effortlessly dodged every attack thrown his way and disappeared back into the ground only for the ground to seemingly stretch out in several spots before wrapping themselves around Mira who had made some distance between herself and Elfman. Elfman immediately noticed what Sol had done and started running over to go free her sister as the ground was constricting her.

This was all easily predicted by Sol as he soon emerged from the ground behind Elfman to strike him in the back with a powerful fist constructed by the earth. On impact it sent Elfman flying into the wall which broke said wall easily. Fortunately, the middle sibling wasn't sent into the lake below and managed to turn around just in time to receive another earth fist to his face. Digging into the earth, rather than being sent flying out of the robot, Elfman managed to hold on to the broken wall and keep himself inside. After the construct faded away, he then ran towards Sol intent on striking him. Now fully serious, he charged his magic which transformed his arm into one of steel.

Unfortunately, it did nothing to stop Sol from easily dodging as he had to quickly block a strong blast of sand. As the grains grinded against his magic arm, he could feel miniscule bits of metal start to flake off. Knowing that he needed a change in tactics Elfman partially deflected the sand and quickly transformed his arm once more. This time his arm took on a scalier appearance and upon making contact with the sand, it was far easier for him to power through and make a strike at Sol.

Though Sol wasn't expecting for it to work, he had just barely managed to avoid the oncoming strike as it had clawed off his nice suit. This action however infuriated Sol who began casting his magic as he started speaking once more. "How dare you monstre, once more you prove yourself to be less of a man than you want to believe." Once this sentence was over Sol's magic was ready and he used it to mentally trap Elfman in a nightmare. While Elfman was living the nightmare over n over, Sol began using his magic to turn Elfman into a statue.

**Inside of Elfman's mind.**

Said nightmare was less of an unfortunate dream and more of a bad memory. Here we see Elfman all by himself as he watches key points in his life. All of which were tragic in some way to him. The 1st was the death of his pet bird when he was younger. Lisanna had tried to give him some words of encouragement and the current him gave himself a small smile at the memory. But his younger self had shoved her off of him and ran off. Of course, this made Lisanna cry as Mira was calmly watching a few steps away.

The next key point showed him Lisanna relaxing beneath a large tree in one of many of Magnolia's parks. Almost immediately present Elfman was quickly putting two n two together and realized what this memory would lead to. It wasn't long after did the younger teen versions of himself and Mirajane show up to inform Lisanna of an Emergency S-Class mission did he start to panic.

As the trio started to leave for the train station, Elfman in full panic mode started to run after them desperate to prevent the terror from even happening. His screams of desperation were quickly drowned out by a much louder roar of a massive monster known as The Beast. The monster's appearance while in memory only still terrified Elfman to the core. As such with both the memory Mira visibly injured and Lisanna just now arriving, Elfman made once last attempt to get them to run away to no avail.

Mira had informed Lisanna that the takeover had failed and The Beast was currently possessing Elfman so when Lisanna tried to reason with Elfman's side, The Beast lashed out and struck Lisanna with a powerful swing. By this point Elfman refused to move, as rivers of tears kept pouring out of his eyes.

After taking some time to gather his strength, he stood by and watched as the memory of Mira started shedding tears at finding an unconscious Lisanna. In the real event, Elfman swore a promise to himself to never let Mira cry again. So, when Elfman saw Mira crying once more, he got furious.

**Back in the real world**

Now with a rather helpless Mira crying once more as she could only watch as her sole brother was being turned to stone. She and Sol were both shocked when they heard his voice. "MIRA, WHY ARE YOU CRYING?" following his outburst, his entire body began to glow with his magic.

As the two bystanders watched for the outcome, they were once more shocked to see Elfman in full body takeover, his form taking on the Beast from their nightmare. Right away Mira was very concerned as all present knew that Elfman couldn't control a full body takeover. With her unable to use her signature magic, she worried that she would not be able to stop Elfman's rampage.

Sol in full panic mode, tried to reason with Elfman, only for the Beast to fire a strong right palm strike. The whole thing missed Sol, but it did bristle his hair. Now unkempt, Sol decided to kill the male Strauss and unleashed his large sand fist, only for the attack to do no damage at all. Panicking even more, Sol attempted to flee, but was literally stopped in his tracks when the Beast blitzed him and unleashed a series of powerful palm strikes. Crushing the poor earth wizard into the stone.

Now with Sol down and out for the count, Mira could only watch in terror as the Beast slowly approached her. Much to her surprise however, she stood by in awe as the Beast ripped apart the earth that constricted her.

**General POV**

With 3 of the Element Four down for the count, the only one left was Aria. After Mira and Elfman left their corridor, they bumped into Gray who had just climbed down from the roof. A quick catchup later, and now all three were on their way to find the last member.

Back on the ground, the other members of Fairy Tail were still struggling against the shades Jose had sent out. As only light magic was effective against the shades, most of them weren't easily dealt with and were able to demoralize a few members. Cana was doing her best to keep everything together until everyone heard the voice of Makarov.

**OK and that'll wrap up this chapter. I did have this "planned" to be up and for your viewing pleasure earlier so sorry bout that. Anyhow the next chapter will be wrapping up the Phantom Arc so I hope you look forwards to that, and I will see you when I see you.**


	8. Chapter 6

**Hello and welcome back to another chapter. Before we begin, I would like to apologize for the rough French language I used in the last chapter. I wanted to make the character seem as close to the real verse as possible so insert reason for French. If I got something wrong don't hate me for it as I don't speak French and merely used a google translate. Once more Arnighte and myself don't own anything related to Fairy Tail or associated franchises. That's all I have to say so, Let's get started.**

With the vast majority of his subordinates left unable to fight, Jose understood that he too would have to get his hands dirty if he still wanted to achieve both of his objectives. So he played the waiting game, calmly sitting back in his chamber and patiently waited for the fairies to come to him.

**With Natsu**

Taking a quick breather from his fight, Natsu let his body relax for a moment as he waited to see if Gajeel would be going to make another move. He quickly noted that he wasn't the only other occupant of the current room. His attention directed itself to a teenage blonde girl who had a pair of anti-magic cuffs on her wrists. She also seemed to be carefully watching his gaze, waiting for him to make the first move.

His attention soon shot back to Gajeel just in time to witness the debris that buried him, get blasted outwards in all directions. Not even caring to move his head out of the way of oncoming debris, Natsu quickly braced himself for Gajeel's next move. He didn't have to wait long as following said debris was Gajeel himself.

Immediately both dragon slayers cocked their arms back before unleashing a powerful right jab. Gajeel's fist was coated in his iron scales, and Natsu's was cloaked with fire. Both mages pushed against each other, with neither one giving an inch of ground. the environment on the other hand, couldn't handle the magical pressure being released and everything within a couple meters, excluding Lucy, had cracks release all throughout.

A minute had barely passed, and both mages released their hold on the other, before trying again by sending an upwards diagonal kick. Once more connecting in the middle, and with both magics charged. The two continued to clash against each other. With both sides trading punches and kicks and each one that connected with the main body doing sizeable damage, it was currently a stalemate.

Several rounds of exchanging blows later, and both mages were ready to end the fight. After Natsu connected a strong flaming right hook into Gajeel's chest, the force of which blew him back a few feet, Gajeel used the distance to unleash his deadly Iron Dragon Roar. On release, it was quite simply a powerful torrent of razor-sharp iron particles. Though each particle was practically microscopic in size, all together and at the speed with which they travelled is what would deal the maximum amount of damage.

To a standard person, and even to the common mage, getting hit by a torrent of iron particles would easily shred their body. Though Natsu was far from an ordinary mage. Waiting for the roar to get closer, as soon as it got within arms reach of him, he took both of his arms and put them in front of the oncoming attack. On contact, Lucy had looked away, but Natsu was able to barely deflect the whole thing with numerous minor cuts scattered everywhere on his hands.

The whole thing shocked Gajeel to the core, as to his credit, most people and even most mages wouldn't be able to simply block such an attack. Dismissing his shock quickly, he quickly moved to close the distance once more, only for Natsu to intercept him midway and end up receiving a devastating flaming axe kick to the head.

For Natsu, as soon as he dissipated the attack, he quickly ignited his right leg and bolted right for Gajeel, upon reaching him the sudden movement stunned Gajeel giving Natsu enough time to use the fire on his leg as a booster and increase the speed of his axe kick. Normally, it would be overkill for any normal person. Gajeel's strong, durable body managed to keep him alive after receiving said attack. Though the same couldn't be said for his exhaustion as the last blow knocked all the wind out of his lungs and easily sent him into the ground, unconscious.

**With Erza**

Having just woken up from her state of unconsciousness a few moments ago, she had secretly left her room to go and put an end to the fighting. As she was making her way to the giant robot, she noted that some of Jose's shades weren't targeting her fellow members. Rather they were targeting a lone archer up on a hilltop. From her current position, she couldn't make out who the shades were targeting and decided to make a note of it for later.

Soon she had already flown across the lake and reached the middle level of the robot. Quickly Requipping a simple sword, she sliced apart the wall in front of her and started to make her way upwards. During her travels she passed by several rooms that looked like a storm had occurred inside and destroyed almost everything within. Glancing upwards she noted there was a hole in the ceiling. Looking closer she saw that said hole continued upwards through several floors.

Seeing this as a quick shortcut, she once more took flight. Following each hole, she noted the state of damage to each room she passed. Upon reaching the top, she overheard a startled gasp and swung her blade round. Following her blade's arc, she quickly stopped the blade before it had a chance to slice into Lucy, who was the source of the noise.

Relief took over and Erza used her sword to slice through Lucy's cuffs. Now free to stretch the muscles in her wrists, as well as use her magic, Lucy quickly explained that this strange pink-haired man and Gajeel were the source of all the damage. The mention of a strange pink-haired man struck a memory in Erza. Though fully curious as to what he was doing here, Erza made it a mental note for later.

Both the safety of this guild as well as the citizens of Magnolia came before some stranger's motive. With Lucy safe, Erza started to resume her path upwards until she noticed Lucy tagging along. Lucy managed to convince her as both girls knew having Lucy hang back in enemy territory would put her safety at risk.

It wasn't that Lucy couldn't hold her own, it was more of the fact that was uncomfortable being left alone. Either way, the two girls continued upwards in an effort to find and take down Jose.

**With Natsu**

Having left the unconscious dragonslayer back in the same room as Lucy, Natsu was far ahead of the other mages of Fairy Tail currently walking throughout the giant robot. While the others were searching for the remaining members of Phantom, Natsu was making his way to the source of the whole thing. He had picked up Jose's vile magic presence after delivering a knockout blow to Gajeel and had been quietly following it since. Stopping just outside a double wooden door, Natsu tuned out his surroundings as he carefully listened for anyone waiting to ambush him on the other side.

A minute of silence had gone by and with no movement being made, Natsu proceeded to blast the doors apart with his magic, alerting both groups of Fairy Tail mages to the sound. Proceeding in, he wasn't surprised to find Jose sitting on his throne. The ever-present evil grin going even wider at Natsu's appearance. As Natsu started to walk towards Jose, the guild master began to speak.

"So this is the mysterious mage that managed to take down my dragon? I must admit you seem rather powerful." Both sides knew Natsu was listening so Jose continued. "Tell you what, you look like a reasonable man, join me and help me take down those pesky fairies and I'll make it worth your while." While Natsu did hear him, he didn't answer and merely kept his pace towards Jose. With no answer, Jose spoke up once more. "I understand that you have a peculiar woman in your care, if you join me, I promise that you both will receive a warm welcome, as well as a place to stay."

The mention of Shamir, did surprise Natsu as he didn't expect Jose to know about her, but it did not slow him down. Rather he kept walking towards Jose as the latter went on and on offering ever sweet deal under the sun. Of course, he finally stopped offering deals once Natsu stopped walking as the fiery mage had reached the bottom of the flight of stairs that led directly to Jose.

"So it would seem that nothing can convince you to lay down your arm and join me." Taking a moment to inhale, Jose also closed his eyes. On reopening them Natsu was slightly unnerved that the whites of Jose's eyes had gone pure black and his iris turned yellow. With a fresh evil grin to match, Jose spoke once more. "Very well then, I'll eradicate you and that pesky girl of yours as well as the annoying fairies."

Now switching into a battle stance, Natsu braced himself as Jose merely stood up from his seat. The act alone wasn't much, but Natsu could easily sense the far more sinister aura that rose along with Jose. Around this time, both groups from Fairy Tail had reached the same room, with duo having just found and swiftly defeated Aria.

Erza easily recognized Natsu as the stranger from her last solo quest, while the others save for Lucy, had no idea who the pink-haired mage was. Though it didn't take long for their attention to change to Jose as his evil laughter filled the room. The fairies quickly stood by Natsu and got ready for battle as Jose's dark aura filled the room.

"How convenient, I was just about to slaughter you flies but you all flew here into my trap instead." Jose gave another sinister laugh and soon fired a burst of his shade magic at the group. All of whom were able to easily dodge it, holding up his hands, both of which were covered in dark magic, Jose started to fire a several bursts of shade magic at everyone present.

Of the group, Lucy was the only one who had a harder time avoiding each spell headed their way as it was her first time fighting against a powerful opponent. Nevertheless, every target was able to avoid each shade and Natsu managed to close the distance first.

Having ignited his feet with his fire, he used the momentum and propelled himself forwards and came face to face with Jose, the latter whom gave Natsu an evil smirk as Natsu had been hit by one of Jose's shade cluster spells. After Natsu flew off to the side, Erza was the next one to close the distance and managed to throw several powerful slashes at Jose, who never lost his grin as he casually side-stepped, parried, or maneuvered his way around each attack.

After unleashing a strong downward diagonal slash, Jose's left arm suddenly sped up and fired a half-charged blast of dark energy, the whole motion happened within a second and Erza received it full forth, sending her backwards.

Meanwhile with Gray and Lucy, the latter of whom had just finished summoning her only on hand celestial spirit, Sagittarius, both the spirit and Gray prepped their bows which were made from their respective magic, and soon released a volley of magical arrows, all of which connected head on with Jose. After the volley, both were slightly unnerved that their combined attack had barely left a scratch on Jose, who had used the time to unleash his own volley of shades.

Thinking quickly, Gray quickly formed an Ice shield large enough to block a majority of the shades. Towards the end of the oncoming blasts of magic, Gray's shield was cracking from the force of the attack and was soon to shatter had both Elfman and Natsu not suddenly burst forth with their fists coated in respective magic and delivered a double straight that knocked Jose back a few feet.

Just as Jose regained his footing, he was suddenly sent flying forwards as Erza had managed to sneak round to his backside and unleash a powerful diagonal crosscut. This point Jose had enough foolishness and unleashed his dark aura. Using his magic, Jose had managed to stop himself in midair and remained there as his arms quickly cast one of his more powerful spells, Dead Wave. The result of the spells was large skulls all coated in shade magic that had been shot forth from out of nowhere. On impact, each one left a small crater or in Elfman's case had almost crippled his body. As Elfman had acted as a human shield for Mira.

Now with most of the fairies either unable to keep fighting or having exhausted their magic, the sole combatants still standing were Natsu, Erza and Jose. The former two just as exhausted as the others. Not giving them a chance to catch a breath, Jose had once more used his magic to pickup both Natsu and Erza by their necks and bound them with his shade magic. At this point, Natsu was quietly channeling his magic in his body, ready to burn through his restraints. Erza on the other hand, was more than ready to wound herself if that was what it took to bring down Jose and had been concentrating her magic into slowly driving her sword into her own back.

Before the sword could even come within an inch of her bare back, it was suddenly stopped when Erza had felt a radiant light shine down on her. Barely managing to turn her head around, she could almost see who was behind her until she felt the shades binding her and Natsu dissipate into the light. Now free to look at the newest arrival she was greatly pleased to see that Makarov had made a full recovery and had just arrived to deal with Jose.

Natsu on the other hand, internally thanked the old man and stood by and observed what Jose might do with this newcomer's arrival. With Makarov's arrival, it meant that Jose and his guild have officially lost the fight. Of course, it didn't stop Jose as he refused to give in. Before Makarov even had a chance to speak, he quickly blocked a blast of shade magic using a magic barrier made of light. Just as quick, Makarov cast several rays of light in retaliation and all rays connected head on.

Jose's laughter didn't end there and once the smoke vanished, laughed even harder before finally calming down enough to speak. "It no longer matters if I can't extort Lucy, I'll simply kill you and your 'precious' children." As everyone had expected, Jose was beyond sane at this point, thus Natsu once more got prepped for battle. Erza and the others had also wanted to join in, but Makarov ordered everyone to allow him to deal with Jose alone.

Reluctantly, but with much faith in their guild master, everyone quickly hurried out and made their way to rejoin their fellow members back by the ruins of their guildhall. Natsu was the only one to stay behind and both guild masters had noticed it as well. Makarov once more ordered Natsu to head outside, but he refused and simply told Makarov that he wasn't a member of his guild, thus the order did not apply to him.

Sighing in defeat, Makarov allowed Natsu to join him and together the two of them got ready to fight once more. The battle resumed with all three participants unleashing powerful spells, Makarov and his rays of light, Jose's dead wave, and Natsu's fire dragon roar. All three attacks collided near the middle of the room and kicked up a lot of dust from the explosion. Not letting the dust to dissipate, Natsu swiftly burst through and launched a fiery helicopter kick which connected with Jose's torso.

As the impact sent Jose flying, Makarov took the initiative and unleashed a beam of light that struck Jose in the dead center of his chest. Now rolling backwards, Jose made a quick recovery and got back to his feet. On doing so, he instantly released a burst of shade magic from his hand. The target being Natsu. As soon as they got close, however, Natsu had cast his own spell and fire erupted from the ground in front of him, easily burning away the shades. Following this, Natsu gathered his magic around his hand and ignited it before seemingly throwing the fire at Jose. Upon releasing however, the fire gathered in his hand left at an extremely fast speed. Due to how fast the fireball was travelling, to the untrained eye, the whole spell was moving at a blur.

Just a few seconds before it reached Jose, the shade mage had summoned a dark skull to block the attack, but was surprised when it shattered his spell and struck him in his ribcage. The resulting blast was strong enough to crack Jose's ribcage. The damage Jose had taken was clearly visible for all to see and it angered him to no end. Unleashing the full force of Dead Wave, Jose sent it all for Natsu.

Around this time, Makarov intervened and blocked the attack with a powerful defensive spell. Once the attack faded, he unleashed a trio of light rays all targeting Jose only for the latter to intercept them with his own shades. As the two guild masters pushed against each other, Natsu was getting prepped to end it. He didn't have to wait long as the masters' clash of magic soon gave off an explosion.

Once more using the dust as cover, Natsu blitzed Jose and got his finishing move ready. With both of his arms ablaze, Natsu swung them in a circular fashion as he chanted his incantation. "**Dragonslayer Secret Art, Flame Lotus Exploding Flame Blade.**" On completion, Natsu had released an extremely powerful torrent of flames that easily overwhelmed Jose and his shades.

The torrent of fire kept going, and soon they connected with the wall where it shattered the wall like glass. Even after that the torrent kept going, until it dissipated over the lake. Once the smoke had settled. Jose was barely able to stand. Alive, but in massive amounts of pain. With Jose unable to keep fighting, both Natsu and Makarov relaxed their form before facing each other.

Makarov had been alive for a very long time. (I don't know how old Makarov actually is around this time, my best guess is 90.) Throughout his very long life, he had met many an odd folk, namely his own family which made up Fairy Tail. This would be the 2nd time he has met a dragonslayer. The 1st being his grandson. Still weary of Natsu's motives, he silently observed the young man as Natsu was getting ready to leave.

Just before Natsu took flight, Makarov spoke up. "Young man, I must apologize for getting you involved in a guild conflict, I can tell you aren't a member of either guild. However, your bravery in facing Jose, as well as assisting my children in battle are both much appreciated." He paused to take a breath before continuing. "I would like to offer you a place in Fairy Tail. I'm sure many of the others would love to welcome you."

Natsu gave it some thought. After a minute, he gave his answer. "Sorry gramps, I don't feel like being tied down right now. I appreciate the offer but I must decline." The old man, did understand. He wouldn't force anyone to join if they didn't want to. Though it didn't mean he wouldn't spite the young teen for calling him old.

Now with the invitation extended and declined, Natsu finally took off and Makarov quietly watched him leave. Not long after, the short old man turned his attention back to Jose, who was still in a voiceless shock. Jose's entire body was covered in burns of varying degree so the man wouldn't be able to move a muscle for a long while, let alone speak. Regardless Makarov scolded Jose for the whole event before declaring the war is now over.

**With Shamir**

Rejoining our favorite archer back on the clifftop, she was calmly watching the remaining events unfold, she could easily hear the cheers and celebrations from up where she was. Yet she was never one for parties. Soon her attention was drawn to Natsu, who had just landed atop the cliff and suffice to say, looked like he had gone through hell. No words were spoken, nor were they needed. Natsu just sent her a cheeky grin which she returned as the two soon departed into the nearby woods.

**With Erza**

Down below watching the two travelers leave we join Erza. All around her the cheers of her guildmates drowned out everything else. She had seen Natsu's devastating attack and was rather surprised to hear from Makarov that it didn't kill Jose outright. Then again, Jose was absurdly tough so it didn't surprise her that much. As everyone celebrated around her, she could only think of Natsu. She could vaguely remember the heat his fire gave off. How warm and friendly it was.

Erza was one of the few that really wanted Natsu to join the guild, so when Makarov relayed what Natsu's answer was it was a bit of a shocker to everyone. Some of the members didn't understand why Natsu wouldn't join, they felt that he would fit in perfectly. As the celebrations continued, she was eager to meet Natsu again. Possibly get to know the pink haired mage some more as well.

**Ok that's all for this chapter. Apologies, I had wanted this chapter out earlier but work n school took priority. Anyhow quick QnA, as I mentioned earlier, I am not 100% positive as to how old Makarov actually is, in the most recent arc of canon, Makarov is at least 97yrs old. That is x793. Why did I have Natsu finish Jose and not Makarov, because it felt better in my own eyes. Why did Natsu choose to not join Fairy Tail, I'm pretty sure I said this a few chapters ago, but as a refresher, this verse of Natsu is one who is far more adventurous than the canon verse. Being tied down right now, is not on Natsu's agenda. How did Jose not just turn to ashes when being hit with a secret art. Natsu can show some restraint. But the harder you push Natsu, the less restraint he has. That's all I have for now, so I will see you when I see you.**


	9. Chapter 7

**Hello and welcome back to another chapter. Before we begin, I would like to apologize as I had planned to have this up far sooner than expected. Anyhow, both Arnighte and myself don't own anything from Fairy Tail or associated franchise. However, Arnighte does get credit for creating one of the upcoming characters. That's all for now, So Let's get started.**

**The Woods near Fairy Tail**

It was a few minutes past the 30min mark after Natsu's return and Shamir was fully curious about the events that had transpired in Phantom Lord's Guild. Natsu had yet to even speak so she took the lead.

"So Natsu, did you find what you were looking for?" she started. A quick moment of silence past and Shamir had almost decided to forget the whole thing when Natsu finally answered. "Yes and No." His answer confused Shamir and he could tell just by glancing at her face which easily told him to elaborate.  
Taking a breath of air he continued. "I did find what I was looking for. But it was not what I had expected." Pausing to see Shamir nod in understanding he kept going. "I had initially followed it as I sensed the sinister aura being rolling out of the robot in large waves. Upon arriving atop the cannon. I had been surprised to find yet another dragonslayer."

At this, Shamir once more nodded her head in understanding as she did catch glimpses of Natsu and Gajeel's fight. Natsu continued to explain the rest of his fight with Gajeel before bringing the topic to a certain red-haired knight. "So, after I finally managed to KO the Iron dragonslayer, I took a moment to rest and picked up of our favorite red head, Erza." The mention of Erza did ring a bell in Shamir's mind, but she kept quiet to let Natsu continue. "She, and someone from her guild were making their way upstairs to the source of the evil presence. I let them go ahead first."

Taking a moment to catch his breath, he resumed. "After getting back on my feet, I had noticed that Gajeel had disappeared whilst I wasn't paying attention so I proceeded upwards." From there, Natsu described the fight with Jose alongside fellow members of Fairy Tail. He also mentioned someone he referred to as gramps. Though by his words, Shamir knew he didn't mean they were related.

Changing the topic, Natsu spoke up. "I did notice you had used some magic spells when you were helping to fend off the shades, so how'd it feel." Shamir gave it some thought, she wanted to lend a hand, and she did land a hand. But Shamir also felt that she could've done some more to help him, throughout the fight, Shamir had been practicing minimal amounts of magic on the shades in conjunction with her arrows. Finally, she answered. "I did manage to cast some of my arrows with light magic, but for the most part it was actually just normal arrows."

Satisfied with the answer, the two dropped the conversation there as they suddenly arrived in front of a rather oddly placed sign. Here they were in the middle of some random forest, with a crudely made sign. On it was arguably the worst handwriting they had ever seen. Both of them had struggled to translate it. What they managed to read was _W-RN- FOREST SPIRIT - HERE_

After their struggle to read it they had taken a quick look at their surroundings to see nothing that seemed out of the ordinary. Thus, they chose to ignore it and continued further into the forest. Unaware of the trees slowly stretching their branches across the path they travelled on. As if to block their way back.

**Elsewhere**

The sun continued to shine bright up in the sky. Down on the ground was an interesting sight. Though it was still in the middle of summer, snow was present in a large area, with no signs of melting. Scattered throughout the area were humanlike statues. All of them had various expressions etched into the snow. Not a second had passed and suddenly a bandit was thrown against a nearby tree, causing some of the snow that was resting above to drop down and break one of the statues. The bandit that had been thrown soon looked back at their opponent and found themselves face to face with their hunter. They couldn't see the finer details of the hunter, but they could make out the fact that their hunter was of average height, with most of their body concealed under a dark green overcoat.

They soon started to panic when their assailant started to speak. "I do wish you were more considerate with your landing." He started. "After all, it would be most unfortunate if your companions died because of your careless mistakes." This did nothing to calm the panicking bandit, but it wasn't meant to.

The hunter let loose a laugh, before proceeding to calm down and speak once more. "To think that this whole thing had started just because you thought I was an easy target." Chuckling to himself, he soon got right into the bandit's face as the sweat on the latter's face had been pouring off of them in rivers. Jokingly the hunter spoke up. "That's a pretty interesting magic your showcasing right there." He paused and even the bandit could see the smirk the hunter was showing. "Shame that magic won't help you even in the slightest against me."

Of course, both individuals know that sweating is common and not at all a type of magic. But the hunter loved to get under people's skin. Not long after his previous comment, the nearby environment soon started to get colder by the minute. Evident to the bandit as they started to panic even more so than earlier. A few minutes had barely passed and the bandit could no longer move. Afterall, their entire body was frozen stiff because of how hard they were sweating earlier. At this point the hunter let out a loud laugh. Spooking any and all animals that happened to pass by the area.

Not long after, the hunter calmed down once more with a smile still present on their face, as he began going through his rucksack. It didn't take him too much longer as he soon pulled out a crumpled-up piece of paper. On it was a picture of a certain pink-haired mage. Smirking to themselves, the hunter quickly put the paper away again, before wandering off in a random direction.

Just as they were about to leave the snowy area, they had kicked a nearby tree, causing all the snow within the area to start dropping off of the trees, easily breaking every single snow statue. While this was happening, the hunter continued their walk. Not even fazed in the slightest at what they had done.

**Back with Natsu and Shamir**

They had been walking through the forest for around 30minutes now, and apart from small talk and the occasional animal, there wasn't much of note. The calm atmosphere abruptly came to an end when the duo soon found themselves face to face with a little girl.

The girl in question was around Wendy's height. Overall, she seemed like just another human, save for the lack of proper clothes as leaves covered the girl's entire torso. Another note was that the girl was rooted into the soil, just like any other plant. Just as Natsu was about to ask the girl if she needed some help or something, a pink flower suddenly bloomed in front of them and released pink dust into the air.

The dust in question was actually a magical spore, which when inhaled would cause the victim to fall asleep. As the duo unfortunately found out too late as both of them soon collapsed onto the ground.

**Somewhere**

Deep within the forest, Natsu was on his own and still asleep. A minute went by and suddenly a water droplet fell on his face. Not long after that, Natsu quickly woke from his extended slumber. Doing a quick scan of the area, he noticed that he wasn't in the same place as he had previously been. In the immediate area, he found himself to be sitting on a large red flower. Around said flower was a small circular lake with the forest lining the other end of the border.

Taking the time to try and find Shamir, he noted that she was nowhere to be seen. Sighing in frustration, his enhanced senses soon caught wind of another creature. Turning his head to look at the source he was slightly surprised to find the girl from earlier. As he tried to stand up, he found himself unable to do so. On finding the reason why, he noticed that his legs were bound to the petal of the flower he had been resting on.

Now nervous, Natsu tried to talk to the mysterious girl. "Hey could you let me out of this flower. While you're at it, could you also tell me where my friend is." The answer he got wasn't one he was expecting as instead of talking, the girl seemingly uprooted herself from the ground and revealed her feet that also looked human. Within the same motion, the girl started to slowly walk closer and closer to Natsu.

The sight alone made Natsu uneasy as he wasn't sure what the girl had planned for him. Deciding that now would be a good time to use his magic and find his own way out, he was thoroughly surprised that his magic wasn't working. Rather it felt like it was being suppressed. Panicking, Natsu continued to struggle to get even a small fire, but his efforts were in vain. His distraction allowed for the girl to slowly close the distance.

Once Natsu finally noticed, he was startled to see the girl right in front of him. Calming down Natsu spoke up once more. "Did I accidently do something to upset you? If so, then I apologize. But I'm getting uncomfortable so could you please let me free."

Just like before he got no answer, rather his eyes widened when he saw the girl cupped his face in her hands and bring him in for a kiss on the lips. On contact, Natsu's mind stop functioning and allowed the girl to do as she pleased. From the outside view, green veins slowly started to spread from his lips downwards and into the rest of his body.

**Elsewhere around the same time**

In a different section of the forest, Shamir was already up and searching for either the girl or Natsu. At the moment, she was jumping from tree to tree quickly traversing the forest for even a sign of her pink haired companion. She was more concerned for Natsu's wellbeing than the girls. As she had easily pieced together that the girl wasn't a human to begin with.

Soon she arrived at a clearing and looked around to find Natsu bound to a giant flower, with a lot of life sucked out of him. Nearby the same "girl" the duo had seen earlier was currently starting some kind of magical ritual. Shamir also noticed that the "girl" looked grown up now.

Acting quickly, she pulled out her bow and notched an arrow, within the same motion she also aimed true and let it fly. Not long after that, did the arrow hit its mark right on the "women's" forehead. A plus side after the strike was the fact that whatever ritual the creature had been attempting, it was stopped the moment an arrow buried into their skull.

Keeping a free hand on her bow, Shamir quickly climbed out of the tree and made her way over to free Natsu. Drawing a hunting knife, Shamir quickly cut the flower to shreds and caught Natsu before he had hit the ground. Now that she was up close, she could easily see faint green veins coating his entire body. While she was distracted however, the creature suddenly jerked its entire body around to face Shamir.

The sudden sound of movement startled Shamir and she almost dropped Natsu into the water. Barely a second had passed, when several large vines emerged from the ground around them. As they slowly started making their way ever closer to the duo, a lightbulb went off in Shamir's head. Quickly placing Natsu on the ground she started digging around in her small travel bag.

A few seconds of searching and Shamir found what she was looking for, pulling out a thin vial of clear red liquid, Shamir quickly uncapped the vial and started pouring the liquid into Natsu's mouth.

**Flashback**

1 month after Shamir and Natsu had beaten Serpent, Natsu was on his sleeping bag out like a light. He had just exhausted himself training again. Shamir had been in the meantime, going through their supplies when she came across a bag that belonged to Natsu. Inside, there were several vials of clear red liquid. Her curiosity peaked, taking one of them out of the bag she got a closer look now that the sunlight could help her.

It didn't make much sense to her as the liquid didn't seem very special. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't lose any of my meds." Stated Natsu suddenly. Startling Shamir, she had almost dropped it and nearly broke the vial. Luckily Natsu managed to catch it and quickly took the bag from her hands. Gathering her emotions, she asked what was on her mind. "Medicine? I don't mean to insult you. But that doesn't look like it would even do anything."

Her curiosity was justified, therefore Natsu relented and explained. "It isn't a normal medicine, its unique to dragonslayers as it can be used to give them a temporary boost in energy." Noticing the confused look on her face, he elaborated. "Let me give an example, say there are two mages. One of them is just a normal mage, and the other is a dragonslayer. After an intense day of training, the mage would naturally be worn out before the end of the day. Depending on how hard the training, typically a dragonslayer will last longer."

Pausing to take a breath he continued. "In the rare event a dragonslayer exhausts themselves, they can drink this liquid and get a short burst of energy. Temporarily filling their stamina and magic container." Returning his attention to Shamir, he wasn't surprised to see her looking at him in wonder. Internally chuckling, he still retained enough attention to hear Shamir's next question. "I seem to get the idea now. But you don't seem like the type who is capable of making this stuff."

Now laughing out loud, much to Shamir's annoyance, Natsu took a quick moment to calm down and answered. "Actually, I did not make it, rather I helped gather the materials to make it. The real creator is a friend of mine thus they made it." Seeing her confusion come back, he almost gave her a name to the creator until he changed his mind.

"Anyhow, they are one-time use per vial and I don't have very many of them, so I don't want to risk abusing them or losing them." He spoke. With most of her questions answered she made to dismiss the whole issue until she noticed his hand extended towards her, with one of the vials in hand. Now confused as to why he would do such a thing, just looking at him gave her answer. "In the event of an emergency, I would like for you to safeguard this." He spoke.

Sighing in defeat and fully knowing that anything could happen, she reluctantly accepted the vial and stored it away in her own bag. Afterwards they continued that day with periodic training.

**Present day**

It had been a whole two minutes since the medicine had entered Natsu's body, and Shamir had been silently praying for it to work as she slashed any incoming vines. Suddenly the entire area started to heat up. The creature from earlier went into full panic mode and unleashed a massive number of vines at the duo. Before the vines even moved 3 feet, a sudden explosion of fire erupted from the center, incinerating everything within the immediate vicinity.

Inside the explosion of fire, Shamir opened her eyes once more to see Natsu on his feet and she was amazed to see his body as good as new. Both of them looked at the other and shared a cheerful grin. Not long after did they turn their attention to a shrieking creature who was flailing about. At the same time, more vines started to sprout up behind the creature, all of which seemingly stretching out towards their direction.

Quelling the fire around the area. Natsu spoke up as Shamir got her bow ready once more. "The blood in my veins are pumping and I'm ready to go." Pausing to give the creature a hard glare and a matching grin, he continued. "Now I'm all fired up."

**Alright that wraps up another chapter. Once more I apologize for this delay. I had wanted this chapter up around Thanksgiving, but I was a little busy. Anyhow once more credit goes to Arnighte for his character's cameo. Once more hope you all enjoyed, that is all for now, and I will see you all when I see you.**


	10. Chapter 8

**Hello and welcome back to another chapter. I don't have much else to say before we get started. Once more Arnighte and myself don't own anything from Fairy Tail or associated franchise. Arnighte has full credit to the character he created. That's all for now, so Let's get started.**

We rejoin our favorite duo as they fight off waves of deadly vines. Natsu easily burning away any of the plants that got too close, and Shamir utilizing fire arrows to burn any flowers that happened to sprout. This whole ordeal took place in under 3minutes and thus not long after, Shamir had a large enough opening for her to release one more fire arrow which found their mark in the chest of the women controlling the plants.

The effect was instantaneous, the fire contained within the arrow soon spread all over the women's body. In a few seconds all that remained of the women was a pile of ashes. Around the same time, the other plants that had nearly reached the duo had immediately receded into the ground and disappeared.

Their battle now over, both of them collapsed onto the ground for a much-needed breather. In between breaths Natsu spoke up. "Thanks for the save, Shamir." Giving the archer a very thankful grin. One that she matched before answering "no problem, though I would like to get out of this forest as soon as possible. I have seen enough plants for once."

Both of them laughed at this and after another minute to catch their breath, they soon got up and started onwards. As they were walking, they made some idle chat. "So how did you find where I was anyways?" Natsu asked curiously. To Shamir's face it was rather cute so she answered. "It wasn't too hard; I used the trees to my advantage and happened across your location rather easily."

The next question was rather obvious, but Natsu asked it regardless. "I understand that the girl wasn't human but you seemed far more familiar with it than me." This question gave Shamir some pause, which he noticed. But she brushed it off and answered. "The girl was indeed not human, nor was she native to the area." Seeing she had his full attention, she continued. "The girl is actually a dryad. Dryads are rather seclusive creatures as they usually don't show themselves to people. This one in particular seemed to have been desperate for some odd reason. Which is why she was trying to drain you of your energy." As the two pondered over their knowledge at hand. Up in the trees away from eyesight, stood a stranger of average height, silently observing them.

A whole half hour passed and the two finally found themselves at the edge of the forest, with an open field stretching out in front of them. Relieved at being out of the woods, both teens took the opportunity to take a break. Setting up a quick camp whilst working on some food.

All of a sudden, the temperature dropped slightly though only Shamir noticed it and it unnerved her enough for her to draw her bow. Still not paying any attention, as Natsu's focus was on the food in front of him. He didn't notice Shamir start to wander away from the camp until he had glanced up and saw no one next to him. As he was about to quickly pack up camp, his heightened senses alerted him to an incoming attack from behind and he just barely dodged a snowball aimed for the back of his head.

Now Natsu wasn't the smartest person but even he knew that the current weather let alone the current season was not winter. So, he was thoroughly confused as to where the snowball originated from. Turning to face the source he immediately took a snowball to the face. "Well now, it took you long enough to finally notice me." A voice suddenly spoke.

Wiping the snow off of his face, Natsu got a good look at the newcomer who he quickly realized was the source of the snow. All Natsu could see was that this newcomer was a male of average height and donned a dark green overcoat. Most of this man's face was concealed, and the breaths of warm air coming out of the man's mouth.

Seeing as the man finally had Natsu's attention, he smirked and spoke up. "So, you are my target? You don't seem like much." As soon as he finished, Natsu got into a fighting stance, getting the man to chuckle. While the man was chuckling, Natsu spoke up this time. "It's seems like you're a bounty hunter of some sort, I don't know who hired you to get rid of me, but I pay them back in pain as soon as I'm done here with you." This got the man to laugh even harder.

Any animals that heard the man's laughter were easily unnerved as was Natsu himself, who thought this man was insane. It didn't take long for the man to calm down and finally introduce himself. "Since you seem so eager to jump to your grave, I'll give you my name, Lokir"

No sooner did the now known Lokir finish speaking, Natsu found himself rolling out of the way of a horizontal wave of white light. Allowing the light to pass overhead, Natsu spared it a glance and saw the end result coating a tree in snow, as per the impact point. Natsu's moment of distraction however earned him a snowball to the back of his head. Returning his attention to Lokir as the snow remnants melted in his hair, he cursed when he couldn't find where the prankster went.

So focused on finding his prey, Natsu almost took another snowball to the face. Quickly forming a fireball in his own hand, Natsu smirked and immediately sent his own attack straight for Lokir. Caught off guard at how fast Natsu's reaction time was, Lokir hastily attempted to block the fireball with a shabby snow wall. Of course, it didn't do much as the fire easily melted through and impacted with his gut. Fortunately for Lokir, the power of the fireball was significantly reduced as it could have done real damage otherwise.

While it did not do any damage, it annoyed Lokir that someone was besting him at his own game. "Looks like you wanna play rough. Very well, I'll give you a glimpse of my power before I kill you." He said. Natsu used the time Lokir was speaking to close the distance and sent a straight jab. It connected and destroyed a snow duplicate of Lokir. Stunned, Natsu suddenly found himself ducking his head under a flying object. Now recovering, Natsu once more turned to face off against Lokir only to hear creaking noises coming from the tree behind him.

He didn't even need to look back at the source to understand the new force behind Lokir's attacks. Not long after did his ears pick up the sound of snowballs moving at the speed of arrows in flight all heading right for him. Within a split second, Natsu rolled forwards and used his fire to melt some of the snow. However, it didn't stop him from flinching as one of the snowballs scraped his arm, drawing blood.

Ignoring the pain, Natsu immediately setup a wall of flames to block any more oncoming snowballs. At the same time, he could hear the snowballs melting instantly on contact with his fire. '_Damn, he's surprisingly fast for someone who doesn't look like a runner, and his snowballs feel different than before.'_ He thought. As the snow continued to collide with fire, Natsu took a deep breath and calmed down. With a mind of complete focus, he closed his eyes and focused on using his enhanced senses. Mentally, Natsu could "see" everything nearby, from the sound of his fire, to the smell of snow-covered trees, Natsu mentally cast a wide range sensor. As soon as he did, he could hear Lokir's footsteps in the snow, softly crunching with each step. It didn't take long to connect the dots and discover Lokir's next position.

With his eyes still closed, Natsu turned around to his right and unleashed a barrage of fireballs all of which were heading for Lokir, much to his surprise. Each fireball that connected, did minor damage, but was more than enough to stun Lokir long enough for another fireball to hit him.

After releasing one more volley of fireballs, Natsu quickly bolted right behind them and closed the distance between the two of them. His eyes now open, Natsu gave Lokir a devastating downward straight. The blow did more than send Lokir into the snow, it also caused a piece of paper to fly out of Lokir's coat. Somehow catching Natsu's attention, he simultaneously grabbed the paper midair, and rested his leg on Lokir's chest, so the man didn't try anything. Observing it, Natsu noted, much to his amusement, that it was a bounty placed on his own head.

While Natsu was examining the wanted poster, Lokir had just retained consciousness and was quietly preparing his next spell. Once he finished, Natsu was hit square in the jaw by a strong cube of snow, knocking him into the air. Easily recovering from the blow, Natsu refocused his attention back on Lokir who had just managed to get back on his feet. At the same time, Lokir locked eyes with Natsu and had finished charging a barrage of snow bullets** (Yes snow bullets do exist as a type of snowflake)**.

"I can easily see how you were worth the price on your head now." Lokir managed to say. "As much as I would love to keep this fight going, I do need the money." On finishing, Lokir swung his outstretched arm downwards in Natsu's direction and the entire barrage of snow bullets he had made all shot straight for the pyro. With not much time to setup a proper defense, Natsu hastily threw up a circular wall of fire just large enough to cover his vitals. Luckily it was immediately after his shield went up did the snow bullets pierce through every exposed part of his body causing lots of minor bleeding.

As the hail of snow bullets continued, Natsu was planning his next move. '_Shit this magic attack stings like hell. At the same time I imagine it must be rather costly to maintain the spell.'_ It was almost as nature herself had read Natsu's mind and sure enough the bullet barrage started to die down. Taking advantage in the reduced number of oncoming projectiles, Natsu grabbed ahold of his flaming shield and allowed gravity to intervene as he was now heading right for Lokir.

Lokir, now all but completely drained of his magic, stood his ground and gathered his courage to take the blow head on. As Lokir believed he could still win this, Natsu was quickly picking up speed. '_Idiot, you should know better than underestimate me'_ Lokir thought. Out of Natsu's sight, Lokir was once more charging his next spell. A couple seconds passed and both combatants were now ready to give their all in this next blow. Natsu maintained his ever-increasing speed and made sure to further propel himself forwards by igniting his feet. Such a maneuver was easily read by Lokir as his own spell had just finished and in his hands, he held a rather unusual looking weapon. It was as long as a shovel but the head where the shovel's blade would be there was a single edged axe head.

Quickly swinging his unique weapon behind his head, in a batter's stance. Lokir stood his ground and waited for the ball to come to him. Said ball resembled more of a miniature meteor which was on a collision course with Lokir. Within milliseconds, both Lokir and Natsu shouted their hearts out as they clashed in the middle. The collision sent several shockwaves of various temperatures in all directions.

**With Shamir**

In an entirely different section of the forest, Shamir had been hearing noises of battle for a while now and was trying to find her way back to camp. It wasn't long until the shockwaves hit her, did she finally manage to find the correct path and began sprinting towards the source.

**With Natsu**

The clash was still going strong and neither side was giving the other an inch. Both combatants pushed against the other to gain an opening for a finishing blow. After what seemed like 45minutes, Lokir's arms buckled under the strain and the opening allowed Natsu to slam his mini meteor into Lokir's torso. The impact sending him through a few trees. No sooner afterwards did Natsu finally make his way over to check on Lokir's condition.

Much to his surprise, Lokir wasn't dead but he was unconscious. So quickly forming a pair of draconic fire shackles, Natsu cuffed Lokir's arms and legs together. Around the same time Shamir had finally returned to what remained of the camp. She found Natsu struggling to find a way to kill time and just watching over Lokir.

"So how tough was this stranger?" she asked generally curious. Natsu having heard her gave it some thought before answering. "He was stronger than a typical magic assassin. Definitely on par with a subcommander of Serpent" Leaving the conversation there. Shamir quickly changed the subject and scolded Natsu for scorching their food supplies during his fight.

A few hours had passed and the sun was now low in the sky, nearing sunset. By this time, Natsu and Shamir had taken turns maintaining their makeshift camp, and guarding their prisoner. It didn't take much longer for Lokir to finally wake up with a throbbing headache. "Ow, my head." He remarked.

Allowing Lokir a quick minute to regain his bearings, he let out a tired sigh as Lokir finally registered what happened. While all of this was going on, Shamir was examining the bounty that Lokir had been trying to claim. Her confusion only grew to that of shock when she finally put two and two together and figured out who issued the bounty in the first place. Taking a deep breath to calm down, Shamir gathered her strength and her questions to get as much info as possible out of their bounty hunter.

Natsu had just noticed the fire in her eyes after letting her read the bounty poster. He didn't know who had issued the order as he was still reading it when Lokir gave him a strong hit. So, he stepped aside and let Shamir do what she needed to get done. In the meantime, Natsu took a seat right next to Lokir and waited till Shamir was ready.

It didn't take that much longer, and Shamir had finally allowed the fire in her eyes die down so the duo could begin interrogating Lokir. During said break from the fight, Lokir had tested his magic cuffs and found they were surprisingly durable for being made entirely of fire. As he was about to test it once more, he could feel a certain duo looming over him. Turning around to face his captors he wasn't surprised to see them hovering over him with an amused look on their faces.

"Hey now, lets all just be friends and let what happened earlier stay in the past." Lokir started. It was obvious to everyone present that Natsu and Shamir were not going to eat his words up like so many before. Yet that didn't stop Lokir from trying. "You see that bounty was posted all over the last town I had been. As you could easily guess, I am always in need of cash so when I saw the bounty my hopes soared." Shamir looked confused by this, but Natsu chose to speak at this point. "Would you happen to know the client?" Eager for a chance to slip his way out of his current circumstance, Lokir replied right away. "Oh yes the man who posted this bounty was a member of Serpent."

His answer was not what either Natsu or Shamir had been expecting. It was highly unlikely that there were any members left or even alive who had been working for Serpent. However, Shamir wouldn't put it past them to hire a hitman to come and kill them. "Just one more question before we decide your fate. How long ago was this bounty posted?" This question made Lokir think for a bit. As in really think, finally after 5 minutes of silence he answered. "I don't remember the exact date; all I remember was I picked this bounty up around 6 months ago."

Natsu believed this answer and decided to fill in the gaps for him. "Just for the record, Serpent was disbanded and most if not all of their members were wiped out in a raid 7 months ago. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that anyone who had posted the bounty actually has enough money to pay for the capture." Lokir was shocked at the news, after all he had just learned that his services were for free thus attempted to kill an innocent. "I see, still if you would mind doing me one last favor before my fate is sealed." He paused to see their answer. After getting an approving nod from both of them, he continued. "Find this fraud and slay them on the spot for me. My services always have a price, though I usually prefer money, blood would suffice for this one."

Natsu and Shamir gave it a thought before both nodding in approval. As Natsu walked over to Lokir in what the latter thought was his execution, Lokir would soon be surprised when instead of heading to the afterlife, he could feel his cuffs fading away. The shocked look on his face drew laughs from the duo much to his annoyance. As he was about to question why they choose to let him go free. Shamir answered his unasked question. "If you want revenge seek it out yourself. Don't drag us into personal business. Though we wouldn't mind getting in a few good licks in." her answer got Lokir to give a smirk of his own, and with everything settled all three shook hands.

**Alright that'll wrap this chapter up, apologies for taking so long. In other news I have a short story in the works so it'll hopefully be up in 1-2 days from now guaranteed. That is all for now, I hope you enjoyed and I will see you next time.**


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